Implosion
by Dashed
Summary: Betty thought being a lesbian in the 1940's was bad enough without being in love with a preacher's daughter. Kate needed rescuing from her abusive father but that doesn't mean she has to accept Betty's deviance. Or her own. Betty/Kate.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Bomb Girls.

Quick rundown of the characters. Betty- recently out as a lesbian and in love with Kate who rejected her after Betty tried to kiss her. Kate-preacher's daughter that ran back to her abusive father after Betty kissed her. Gladys-rich girl who wants to help in the front lines of manufacturing despite her upbringing and awesome best friend.

XxXx

The ladies changing rooms at Victory Munitions was already filled with steam from the showers despite the blue shift only being let out five minutes ago. Betty stripped off her uniform like she normally would after shift and it was only the firm grip she had on her towel that betrayed her nerves.

Betty stepped into the showers and tried not to let her apprehension show. There was laughing and giggling as more women entered the changing room. There was only one woman in the showers and as soon as she saw Betty an alarmed looked stole across her face as she quickly finished and rushed out. Betty squared her shoulders and stepped inside keeping her head down. She could do this. Two women in mid conversation stopped just at the edge of the showers. Joan, the tall brunette scowled as she saw Betty.

"Come on Doris," she nudged her smaller friend, "we'll get a shower later."

"I can't believe we have to shower with her kind," Doris stepped back clutching her towel.

"My kind?" Betty barked glaring at them fiercely.

"Yeah," Doris snapped right back. "I don't want to shower in front of you anymore. It's like showering in front of one of the men. Who knows what unnatural fantasies you'll have."

Betty growled trying to think up an answer as her skin betrayed her and flushed with humiliation. She had never looked at the other women that way in the shower.

"Oh get over yourself, Doris," Gladys breezed past both women naked as the day she was born. She stepped under the shower nozzle right next to Betty without a hint of self consciousness or worry. "Your own husband doesn't fantasize about you-why in God's name do you think Betty would?"

Doris looked affronted. Her mouth opened and closed as she gasped in indignation at Gladys who continued to shower like normal.

"Or is it that you hope she's looking?" Gladys laughed nudging Betty and flicking water at the still scowling blonde.

"Don't bother with her Doris," Joan spluttered. "She's another one that's strange in the head."

"Ladies, hurry up and shower you're holding the others back," Mrs Corbett snapped without looking up from her clipboard.

"I'm not getting in the shower with the likes of Betty McRea!" Joan declared her nose in the air.

Mrs Corbett looked up from her clip board and gave Betty an assessing look. Betty tried not to balk but there was something about Mrs Corbett that made her anxious. She hated to disappoint the other woman. So few people had believed in her and she hated the thought of losing the supervisor's good opinion.

"I can't force you two into the shower but you can't leave without one. If you don't get in there now I'm afraid you'll have to wait until the rest of the girls are done," Mrs Corbett said going back to her clipboard. "And that goes for the rest of you who think they can pick and choose their place in line."

The other women hurried to fill the showers anxious to be out of the factory and done with the work day. Betty let out the breath she had been holding. She had dreaded this moment since she had first got to work that morning. Gladys gave her a wink and she rolled her eyes. Secretly though, she was glad for the pampered princess.

Gladys waited for her to change sticking close by as the other women muttered around them. Betty glanced at her as she slung her handbag over her shoulder. It was obvious that Gladys wanted to talk to her. They fell into a comfortable stroll out of the factory before Gladys finally took a deep breath.

"Kate wrote to me," Gladys said her tone expecting a fight.

Betty stopped dead. She tried to stop the emotions flashing across her face but it was almost painful how much that one statement had affected her. Betty had to clear her throat before she could speak, "is she okay?"

"Her mother died. She wants to come home," Gladys said reaching out for Betty.

Betty stepped back and held up her hand. Gladys wasn't sure if Betty was pushing her away or Betty's own uncomfortable emotions, either way she dropped her hand limply. "Did she...did she ask for me?" Betty's eyes were squinted but the hurt still squeezed through narrow gap.

Gladys pressed her lips together before shaking her head. "She's doesn't have the money for the train fare and she's afraid her dad won't let her leave again. I'm going to get her tonight."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Betty snapped because anger was easier.

"And have you distracted and out of your mind as you worked with explosives?" Gladys scoffed at her.

"I'm going with you," Betty's tone brooked no argument.

Gladys nodded.

XxXx

"-Cause you're a whore!"

Kate flinched as the glass bottle smashed against the brick wall behind her. She picked up the other unbroken empty beer bottles. Her shaking hands made the brown bottles clink together in her arms as she tried to tidy up the front of the trailer. Over head the street lamp flickered; it was the only source of light in the alley as gloomy and muted as it was.

"If you hadn't have left-! If you had stayed maybe she would still be alive!" Her father yelled at her his blood shot eyes bulging. His normal clean and well kept appearance had deteriorated since her mother's death. He had the beginnings of a ragged beard and his shirt was un-tucked and stained. The preacher hadn't even looked at his bible in weeks. He had reverently placed it in the drawer by his bed when her mother died and then turned away from it.

Her brothers seeing the change in their father had turned further towards the church. They had even tried to get another preacher to talk to him but he had only pretended to listen. As soon as the other preacher had left her father boxed the ears off her brothers and just stopped short of the belt because he was too tired. Since then her brothers had been rarely around the trailer. It had been ok for their father to beat their mother and sister but they didn't like it when they got a taste of his wrath.

"What's it they called you?" Her father slurred slumping forward and nearly out of his rocking chair. "Kathleen-Kathy Andrews? Changing your name like a movie star," her father snorted. His eyes were fuzzy and unfocused. Kate didn't think he could even see her. "No, not like a movie star-like a harlot. A virtue-less harlot, should have renamed you Mary Magdalene!"

Kate rolled her eyes. He had already called her that today. Her father was running out of biblical whores to compare her with. Kate dumped the beer bottles in the trash. She wanted to keep the trailer clean in memory of her mother and also lessen her father's ammunition. She turned back from the trashcan's dusting off her hands and jumped as her father was right behind her.

Her father grabbed a handful of her red hair and slammed her against the trailer. Kate's brain was rattled as her father ground the side of her face against the tin wall. "How many men were you with, huh? How many men came looking for the girl in those pornographic pictures?"

"None! Daddy, I swear," Kate whimpered. She tried to struggle but her dad slammed her against the trailer again. It wasn't the drunken old man holding her in Kate's mind but the terrifying figure of her childhood that always loomed over her. Kate could feel the lash of his belt and the heat of his anger as the scars on her back burned at the memories.

"Disgraceful! Abraham knows nothing of my trials," Her father shook his head sounding sad. The pressure on Kate's head increased as her father's hot beer breath whispered in her ear. "I thought I had exercised the evil inside you Marion, I thought I had vanquished your demons with fire and might-"

"-Get your God damn hands off her!"

Kate was suddenly free leaving her to sag against the wall to recover. There was a loud crash as her father was thrown into the trashcans. Kate turned to see Betty standing over her father. She wasn't sure if she was an avenging angel or a demon unleashed.

"Kate, are you okay?" Gladys asked.

Even in the dark after a long train ride Gladys still looked like a movie star. Her dark hair was pinned up in neat curls and she wore Betty's cheap blue woollen coat and managed to make it seem like a million dollars. Gladys' own clothes would have been far too fancy to wear in this neighbourhood without attracting trouble. It had been so long since Kate had seen a friendly face that she couldn't stop her eyes from welling up. Gladys reached out and drew Kate behind her protectively. Her leather gloves where cold and the material crinkled as Gladys held Kate's hand tightly to comfort her.

Her father squinted at Betty as he tried to get up. Betty pushed him back down without a qualm and looked like she was about ready to give him a kick for good measure.

"Don't you touch him, Betty McRea!" Kate said suddenly.

"After what he did to you?" Betty snapped. She didn't even turn to look at Kate. "I oughtta thump him for the thought! I still owe him one for clocking me across the jaw!"

"I didn't ask you to come running to my rescue!" Kate shook her hand out of Gladys's grip. "I didn't ask for you at all."

Betty recoiled like Kate had hit her. She stood defiantly in the shadowy alley in her wide mannish trousers and her close fitting green blouse. Kate had always liked that blouse on Betty, the soft green colour really brought out the teal of her eyes and the red of her lips. But now, standing in the dark, as the cold night air made Betty wrap her arms around herself for warmth, the only thing Kate could see was the reason why she had left the only safe place she had ever known.

"I didn't ask you to come," Kate repeated softer now.

"No," Gladys said tossing her hair back and tilting her chin. "You didn't ask her to come. You asked me-and I asked her and here we are. We came half-way across the country to come get you so grab your things Kate. You're coming home, even if I have to drag you."

Kate looked back and forth between them torn. When she had first wrote the letter to Gladys she had just buried her mother. Her father was starting to go downhill and her brothers where infuriatingly trying to step into his place by constantly calling her the scarlet woman. Then her father had got even worse and started to get violent again. She had been desperate for escape and turned to the only one who hadn't betrayed her. Now looking at Gladys and the freedom she represented Kate's heart swelled with hope only to be crushed by Betty's unwanted presence.

Given the choice of living with her father or Betty in her life, Kate hesitated.

"It's the pervert!" Her father's cruel laugh cut the air as he squinted at Betty with dawning recognition. He was sitting among scattered trash and even as dirty and un-kept as he was he managed to look smug and superior when he sneered at Betty. "My daughter is too much of a man's whore to be twisted to your perversions."

"Shut up!" Betty snapped hugging herself tighter.

"Kate, go get your things," Gladys pushed Kate towards the door of the squat gloomy trailer.

Kate didn't move. Her father was trying to get to his feet and Betty was glaring at him looking like she wanted to tip him over again. The thought of staying with him, especially after tonight, made Kate's heart clench in fear and her stomach drop to her shoes. The scars on her back were still burning. He was a sick grief stricken man with a temper but he was at least god fearing and familiar. Betty was just sick and wrong and unnatural and going with her, being near her-it made Kate hot, uncomfortable and so nervous that she wanted to be violently sick.

"You aren't leaving girlie," her father glared. "You can't go running off again especially with this one. I'll find you and bring you home."

"You go near her again-" Betty barked automatically coming to Kate's defence.

"-and you'll do what? You got one hit in because I was surprised. Don't think i won't teach a pervert like you a lesson," her father growled darkly. Kate shuddered, she hated that tone. It never did lead to anything good. "If you leave, I'll follow you and tell the police the real story about Kate Andrews. Fake papers is a jailing offence."

"You won't come anywhere near her again," Gladys drew herself up to her full height and her sneer of derision put Kate's fathers to shame. "My father is the personal friend of the mayor and the number one supplier of rations in the country. The police won't trouble Kate at all but if I so much as hear you've even got on a train that points in her direction then I'll have the police waiting at the next stop ready to haul you off for assault and battery. Do you hear me?"

"Prissy little bitch," her father sneered. "You can't do that."

"Try me," Gladys said coolly. Something in her expression must have reached through her father's drunken stupor because he hesitated. "Now Kate," Gladys said turning that same imperial tone on her. "Go and get your things, you're leaving and never coming back."

This time Kate went because she wasn't choosing Betty or her father. She was choosing herself and life and the opportunity that Gladys had given her.

XxXx

Kate found that coming back to the Victory Munitions factory was easy. It was staying that was the hard part. Gladys and the girls she would usually sit and work with had formed a tight protective ring around Betty. Everyone knew about her perversion despite Kate not telling a soul and the whispers and jeering that followed the blonde made Kate stay far away. As a result she was excluded from the protective Betty bubble by her friends. Kate knew Gladys didn't mean to do it and that it was only a side effect of helping Betty but it still hurt.

During lunch Kate had taken to sitting with some of the other women in the factory and the nasty jokes that she had heard at Betty's expense where terrible. She had even heard terrible things said about Gladys and Vera for simply being near Betty. She didn't know how they coped, Kate couldn't stand everyone whispering and jeering at her. It was bad enough when she had first got back and everyone had watched her to see if she would interact with Betty, the gossip had moved on so long as Kate kept her head down and ignored the blonde.

Betty however didn't seem to take any notice of the gossiping groups. She still walked tall with her head held high and worked just as hard as she had always done. That just made the meaner women try harder to provoke a reaction and what the men had said to Betty? The men were just out right rude and demeaning, more so than usual. Kate suspected that it was only Mrs Corbett's watchful eyes that stopped the men from getting physical with their attempts to 'straighten' out Betty.

"Hey McRea! You know you just need a real man!" Paul jeered pushing a wheel barrow filled with casings. He stopped and fondled himself and Kate busied herself wiping the amatol away from the jug.

Betty didn't even pause in her stride as she went to her filling station. "All the real men are off to war, nothing left here but cripples and rejects," Betty called back with her own sneer. "But if you find one you let me know, providing that you don't plan on keeping him for yourself."

Some of the other girls laughed and Paul's face went red. Marco came up behind Paul and slapped him with his clipboard. "Paul don't be so mean to McRea, I mean look at her, she's more manly than most of the fella's in the factory, of course she's a little confused. With an attitude like hers no wonder she put the kobosh on getting a husband."

Betty flushed as Marco and Paul walked off laughing. Kate could see the tension in her shoulders as she fought to stay at her station. She couldn't tell if Betty wanted to run after them and sock them both or run away and hide. Kate knew what she would have done. Betty caught her looking and the flush on her face intensified, Kate could feel her own cheeks heat in sympathy as Betty looked away embarrassed.

At the end of the shift Kate was glad that Betty had started to wait until the end to take her shower. Betty of course didn't make it obvious what she was doing. She took extra long to clean down her station, change and join the line leaving her almost always the last one. Gladys was usually at her side but Kate couldn't understand how Gladys was comfortable being naked in front of Betty now. Kate hated being naked in front of anyone as the scars on her back made her feel ugly. Showering in front of Betty would just be like showering in front of a man and showing him her ugly scars.

"Kate, we're going to grab dinner after work, you want to join us?" Alice asked her. Alice was standing in the shower next to her and Kate was careful to keep her eyes straight ahead, she didn't want to get accused of anything.

"That sounds, uh, great," Kate answered hesitantly. Alice lived on the same floor as Kate but they had never been friends. Kate had latched onto Betty when she had come to the factory and never got around to making other friends. She had thought Gladys and Betty were enough.

"Great we'll wait for you outside," Alice waved as she left the shower to get changed.

Kate hurried to finish and just as she was about to step out Betty had just hung up her towel and was about to step in. They stared at each other in frozen alarm neither one knowing what to do next. The girls on red shift started to trickle in snapping Kate out of her apprehension. She turned and grabbed her towel off the rack exposing her back to Betty. Kate jerked away as a hand landed on her shoulder.

Betty's face was like thunder as she glared at Kate holding her towel like a shield in front of her. "He hit you again," Betty said her voice a tight coil of anger. "You have more scars."

Kate didn't know what to say. She wrapped the towel around herself tightly and moved to pass Betty. Betty didn't seem to want to move out of her way. "Kate," she said trying her best for a softer tone but the blonde was just too angry at her father to pull it off.

"Leave me alone Betty," Kate whispered harshly as she noticed some of the red shift workers eyeing them. "It's none of your business."

Betty didn't move and Kate began to wonder if she would have to physically push past her but Betty eventually stood to the side. Kate rushed to get dressed keeping her head down the entire time. When she rushed outside she almost ran past Alice and her friends her invitation to dinner completely forgotten.

"Whoa! Slow down Kate, are the Gerries on your tail?" Alice laughed as Kate gave them all a weak smile.

"Sorry," she mumbled "I thought I was going to miss you."

"I told you we would wait for you," Alice smiled linking arms with her. "After all how else are we going to find out the real story?"

"Real story?" Kate repeated with a frown.

"Yeah, rumour has it that it was you that Betty tried to, well you know," Alice widened her eyes scandalously.

"What?" Kate asked alarmed. She tried pulled her arm free roughly.

"Hey, don't worry, none of us believed you would be into that sort of thing," Alice tried to sooth her but Kate could barely hear her with the blood rushing through her ears. "I mean singing and cavorting with niggers is one thing but what Betty is doing? That's foul on a whole other level. Come on you can tell us at dinner."

Kate let Alice and her friends drag her to a small cafe in town. She felt sick the entire tram ride and the conversations that the woman were having didn't help any. They were like screeching harpies tearing apart anyone that came to mind. They viciously attack Mrs Corbett who had gained a lot of weight recently and they went after poor Vera and her facial scars. They called her a deformed slut and giggled in wonder at how she ever got the secretary job but their favourite topic that they kept circling back to was Betty.

They ridiculed and mocked everything from Betty's beauty spot, to her getting chosen to be the Bomb Girl poster model and of course her deviance. Their taunts were cruel and hurtful, so much so that Kate could feel the hot sting of tears behind her eyes as she strangled her napkin. Their shrill laughter was the worst. It grated Kate's insides until she couldn't stand it anymore and stood up.

What Betty felt for other women was inexcusable. It disgusted Kate to her core but Betty was still the woman that had helped a poor preachers daughter find her way in a big city. She was still the woman that had stood up to the bullying and harassing of the factory men for all of the woman. She was the one that had risked her life to help Vera and led the blue shift to making Victory Munitions millionth bomb. She was a hero and didn't deserve to have such mean things said about her.

Kate wanted to say all of that. She wanted to scream at the girls and tell them how Betty, as broken and wrong as her predilections were, was still worth ten of them. But fear made her tongue thick and she couldn't say anything because if she did, if she defended Betty then they might think that Kate was the same way. There had already been rumours going around that Betty had tried to get with her but those had died down, if Kate spoke up those rumours might resurface and the thought of all those people think that she was that way? She couldn't speak up. The only thing that Kate could do was tremble and try to hold back her tears. She shook her head furiously and ran away from the table and out of the cafe. She didn't even stop to pay, let them call her bad names.

XxXx

Kate ran back to the changing rooms thinking maybe she had missed Gladys. They were supposed to go window shopping after work but Gladys had needed to talk to Betty and told Kate to wait for her outside. That was fifteen minutes ago and she was desperately impatient.

"I've heard some interesting rumours about the famous Betty the Bomb Girl."

Kate drew up short hiding at the edge of the door at the sound of the voice. She placed one hand on the frame and peered around the edge to see the back of a red shift worker standing in front of Betty. Betty was just out of the shower and wrapped in a towel with her hair slicked back looking at the red worker warily.

"Do I know you?" Betty asked gruffly.

"Not yet but you will," the other woman laughed. She was standing far too close to Betty for Kate's liking. Why wasn't Betty pushing her away? Betty never let anyone get close.

"Listen lady-" Betty's familiar sharp tone rang out only to be cut off by the other woman pressing her against the wall. The open cupboards filled with the red shift workers things rattled and hid Kate's gasp as she watched the other woman whisper intimately into Betty's ear.

Betty looked confused at first but she wasn't fighting like Kate expected her too. She watched as Betty's grip on her towel tightened until her knuckles went white. Push her away Betty! Kate thought but was too horrified to speak.

"Come to this address tonight," the red shift worker said pulling back and tucking a piece of paper into Betty's towel. "And I'll show the proper place to kiss."

"I know where to kiss," Betty said some of her old spirit returning to her voice but it was obvious she was a bit shaken by the encounter.

"Do you really?" The other woman laughed and Kate's eyes nearly fell out of her skull as the other woman palmed the junction between Betty's thighs through her towel. How dare she!

Betty jerked smacking her head off the wall as the other woman walked away laughing. She looked so smug Kate wanted to punch her in the nose. She drew closer and Kate realised that she was in danger of being caught. Without stopping to think she took off down the hall all thoughts of finding Gladys totally forgotten.

XxXx

"You're not actually going?" Kate said accusingly as she hovering in Betty's doorway later that night. She had been on her way back to her room when she noticed Betty's door open. Out of habit she had looked in and she was surprised to find Betty in her good dress, make-up on and attempting to do her hair.

"What?" Betty asked through a mouthful of hairpins. She was absolutely hopeless when it came to hairstyles. It had always been up to Kate make Betty's hair look fancy as Betty could just about pin it up to be neat.

"I saw you today with that red-shift worker," Kate hissed looking around the hall anxious not to be overheard. "You aren't really going to go to that address are you?"

Betty's face looked guilty for a fraction of a second before her chin tilted up and her jaw tensed. "Why shouldn't I?" She asked defiantly turning back towards the mirror.

"You know that she's a-a, one of you," Kate stumbled her face heating. "If you go there she might want to-and that's a sin!"

Betty stiffened "well, I'm already being punished-I might as well do the sinning!"

"Keep your voice down!" Kate snapped looking around the hall again. It would be so much easier if Kate could go in and shut the door but she didn't want people to see her enter or leave Betty's room. "Maybe I over reacted to your advance, maybe you were confused, you said you didn't mean it. Don't go Betty," Kate begged.

"Except I did mean it," Betty said finishing with her hair and turning back to Kate. Her head was tilted down and she looked up at Kate through her lashes. She looked so sad. "And I'm not confused, I just don't like it anymore than you do."

"Then just don't be like that!" Kate begged exasperated. "Why can't you just be normal so things can go back to the way they were?" Because Kate had lost her mother, her father, her brothers and her best friend and she so lonely and tired of losing people.

"You think I don't want to go back?" Betty shook her head her eyes tinged pink "back to a time when you could look at me without disgust? It's always going to be between us Kate. I could pretend but you can't un-know and you'd still look at me that way."

"Betty," Kate pleaded with her to find the solution, to solve the problem like she usually did.

Betty shrugged and picked up her purse. Kate grabbed her as she left, "don't go. If you go, you can't turn back, you really will become a deviant," she warned.

Betty sneered at her jerking her arm away. "You've damned me already."

Kate recoiled from the venom in Betty's tone. She felt her own anger rising at Betty's stubborn attitude. "You're being disgusting Betty! Betty! Betty!" Kate called after her but Betty just ignored her and left without a backwards glance.

XxXx

Kate tossed and turned back and forth on her bed that night. There was a tight knot of anger in her stomach that constantly twanged or flinched when she tried to relax and go to sleep. The thought of Betty actually going through with that woman's offer revolted her. When she had decided to stay part of her had hoped Betty would get better but to go to that woman, be with her in that unnatural way-she just couldn't sleep thinking about it.

How could Betty betray her like this? Kate knew that Betty had unnatural desires but she didn't think Betty would actually give into them. She lay on her bed among the rumpled sheets but couldn't lie still for long. The frame creaked and groaned every time she moved which just added to her annoyance. She growled agitated before finally giving up and pacing her small room.

It was one thing to know Betty was a deviant but seeing it was quite another. She didn't think she would be this mad though. She was going to give Betty a piece of her mind when the other woman got done with her sinning. She was going to march right in there and scream the evil out of her if she had too. Betty was better than this, she was so strong, the strongest person Kate had ever known. Kate just knew if Betty tried, if she fought with even a fraction of the strength that she showed everyday in the factory, that she could do it. Get rid of her demon and be normal.

The floorboards in the hall creaked causing Kate to turn violently towards the closed door of her bedroom. There was a soft shuffling sound right across from her room that could only be the sound of Betty trying to sneak in.

Kate's eyes narrowed as she flung her door open wide and marched across the hall. She didn't take care about the noise or to even lock her room like usual. She couldn't care less if all the women in the boarding house heard her yell at Betty. The other woman deserved it for what she had done.

Betty never locked her door. Even now when the whole house hated her for what she was, Betty still didn't lock the door. She still trusted them that much. Kate threw open Betty's door and slammed it behind her because there was no way Kate was letting her escape. Betty needed to be set straight, she just couldn't pretend what she was doing was okay-that it was-

Kate was ready to launch into an angry sermon that would have made her father proud, until she caught sight of Betty. The normally strong and confident, brazen Kate used to think with adoration, woman was sitting on the side of her bed her head bowed and her entire body slumped like she was a tortoise trying to hide in its shell.

Betty looked up when the door slammed and it was like she had punched Kate right in the gut. Her blonde curls where in shambles with pins clinging desperately to the escaping stands. The neat simple up do, the only hairstyle Betty could do without Kate's help, was nowhere in sight. But it was Betty's bright blue eyes that swept away any trace of Kate's rage.

It was obvious by the puffy swelling that Betty had been trying not to cry. Betty almost never cried, not even when she might have died after Vera's panic attack almost blew the two of them up as she hit the live bomb casing towards Betty. Betty didn't even cry when she had to get her shoulder bandaged after the bomb casing smashed into her. She just soldiered on and after helping Vera went right back to work. The only time Betty ever cried was that night Kate had ran away after Betty kissed her and the thought of that still twisted Kate's guts uncomfortably.

"What's wrong?" Kate asked her voice taking on the soft tone of before. The tone she had always used on Betty until-until she couldn't anymore without feeling like a harlot.

Betty's chin quivered and Kate could see her entire body violently rejecting the need to sob. "I'm fine," Betty forced out trying to use her usually unflappable gruff tone but it sounded like the biggest lie in the universe to Kate.

"Did she hurt you?" Kate's asked sharply. If that woman had hurt Betty she would lit on her with hell's fury because no one had the right to make Betty look so small. The knot in her stomach twisted with the conflict inside her but only a little because nothing in God's world could convince Kate that Betty deserved to be small. Betty was too good, too wonderful and brave and bright to be small and fragile. No one had the right to hurt her just because she was misguided. After all, the Sheppard left his flock to protect one stray sheep from wolves and Kate would protect Betty from all sorts until she was ready to come back to her -to the flock.

"It wasn't like that..." Betty said but she looked away and couldn't meet Kate's eyes. "She wanted her boyfriend to watch, and I, I just couldn't relax, I didn't..."

"Did he force you?" The Egyptian Pharaoh couldn't stop her from reaching out to Betty anymore than he could stop Mosses from parting the red sea.

Betty softened against her touch because she had never been able to do anything else. Betty could never be hard or mean to Kate. Not even on her first day at the factory when Kate had spilled the amatol and nearly blew the entire factory sky high. Betty would have demanded anyone else be fired and shang-highed but she only yelled a little before telling Kate to get back to work.

"No, he didn't. Might have wanted too but I socked him in the jaw when he tried to stop me leaving," Betty seemed to get a little of her fire back as Kate softly stroked her chin with her thumb.

"So you didn't go through with it?" Kate couldn't hide the happiness in her whisper.

Betty flinched and looked away as much as she could without losing Kate's touch. "I did," Betty seemed to drag the reluctant answer out of herself. She couldn't lie to Kate and Kate couldn't live without knowing. Her grip on Betty's chin tightened just a fraction at the news. "I did," Betty repeated and Kate felt a vicious joy in how ashamed she sounded. "Partly with her, and she was rough and it hurt and...it wasn't...it wasn't..."

"It wasn't good," Kate finished desperately. "It wasn't right, you know that now. You've got it out of your system and this is God's way of telling you that you're wrong. You don't like woman that way because it wasn't good..."

Betty didn't answer but she didn't need to. Kate had always been able to read Betty, she had always been able to understand the things the blonde woman was too shy to say. And Betty wasn't saying it wasn't good, that it wasn't for her, she was saying it wasn't how she wanted her first time with a woman to be. She was maybe even saying that it wasn't-that it wasn't- that it wasn't Kate with her.

Kate's own eyes welled up. There was a sinking feeling in her gut. This hadn't straightened out Betty. She might never be set right. But there was also the heated angry disappointment that someone had hurt her Betty. That they had made her feel bad and even if it was wrong, why did it have to be bad for Betty? Wasn't sinning supposed to be fun? Why couldn't Betty even have that? Did God hate her just as much as Betty thinks he does?

Kate's thumb had slowed its soothing strokes on Betty's chin. She traced the little cleft at the top as she stared at Betty's lips. Her lipstick had been wiped away, Kate didn't want to think about how, and Betty's lower lip was pouting like it had been stung by a bee. Kate just wanted to press it back, push the lip back down until it was its normal size. The thought of it being swollen with kisses from anyone else-any other _woman,_ made her feel sick and angry.

Betty's breath ghosted across her thumb and Kate pulled away with a shiver. It was cold standing in her bare feet in her cotton nightdress. Betty lowered her head again, it was as if Kate's touch had been the only thing keeping her upright. Kate should go, she should leave Betty to let her get some sleep but she had a funny feeling that if she left now Betty would just sit there until their shift started and that would be bad for all of blue squad.

Kate began to softly pick out the pins that had valiantly tried and failed to retain some order to Betty's hair. Betty looked up at her with her big wounded blue eyes but didn't move as Kate's fingers went to work. She set the bundle of pins by Betty's dresser and urged the other woman to stand.

Betty got to her feet but it seemed like it took a lot of effort. Kate turned her and undid the laces at the back of her dress. Betty had maybe one good dress that she usually saved for dances, it was pretty but it wouldn't have looked half as good on anyone else. Kate could never wear it but Betty, Betty really shined up like a brass button in it.

As Kate's hands undid the lower laces she saw a rip at the waist. They could definitely sew it and make it just as good as new, but the thought of how that rip occurred, how frantic someone must have been to get Betty out of the dress-Kate felt her hands clench and she had to stop herself from jerking the dress off Betty's shoulders so she didn't have to look at it anymore.

With a force of will and patience that would have made Job proud of her, Kate slowly and softly pulled the dress off Betty. She sank to her knees so that Betty could step out of the dress and she gasped. Betty was as poor as the rest of them so never had petticoats or even ladies long johns. She made do with her cotton vest and panties like the rest of them so when she stepped out of the dress her legs were bare right up until her panties covered her private place.

Kate's hands fisted the dress as she saw the deep red nail marks on the back of Betty's thighs. There was eight all told, four just above the knee on her left leg and towards the middle of the thigh on the right. Kate felt a strong thump of anger like a resounding drum beat at the thought of someone prying Betty's legs apart rough enough to leave those hateful marks.

Betty quickly turned around to hide them standing awkwardly in her underwear as Kate knelt at her feet. She didn't stay there for long as she saw something that made her shoot to her feet like an ally rocket. Betty didn't flinch as Kate roughly tore aside the neck of her vest to see a livid bite mark on her shoulder that the vest hadn't covered completely.

It was a branding mark set against Betty's pale skin. It seemed to glare at Kate with its sin and depravity on full display. Kate was almost quivering with rage. Someone had bitten Betty like she was a piece of meat. Took her and claimed her like they had the right to do something so-so-Kate couldn't find a strong enough thought.

Betty pulled the vest back to cover the mark as she once again avoided Kate's eyes. Kate's stomach rolled, she didn't know who she should be madder at, the animal that had marked Kate or Kate for letting it happen. The bite mark peaked out mockingly from the edge of the vest and Kate had the irrational urge to skin Betty like a wild Indian would. Just peel the flesh off her shoulder to remove the offending mark.

"Does it hurt?" Kate asked scathingly.

"A little," Betty mumbled.

Kate couldn't bring herself to say _good_ or _that's how sin is supposed to feel_ or something like that because she was more upset at the thought of that mark being there with its primal meaning shoved in her face. She glared at Betty but couldn't sustain it as Betty just took her anger like she deserved it. The blonde was already so miserable that Kate couldn't bring herself to build upon it.

With a deep steadying breath Kate composed herself. Her hands were much gentler when she guided Betty into the bed. She fused with the covers before pulling them around Betty tucking her in like a child. Kate turned away to get the light by the door when Betty grabbed her wrist tightly.

It was instinct that made Kate harshly jerk away more than the thought of Betty touching her. Betty's hand retreated quickly and she gripped her pillow tighter burying half her face in it as she seemed to shrink into herself.

"Sorry," Betty muttered.

Kate tried to get a hold of her heavy breathing. The tight grip had reminded her of her father and the scars on her back burned at the memory. Her hand was still raised from when she jerked away and it looked like she was ready to strike Betty. Kate let her hand fall limply because even at her worst she could never bring herself to hit Betty. She remembered when her father had stuck Betty when he had come to collect her, she could never inflict that pain or be the cause of that again.

Betty didn't explain why she had grabbed her. Her courage had fled at Kate's violent jerk and it was obvious that she was going to let Kate walk out of her room. She looked so small under the covers. Kate turned out the light with a soft click. The only sound in the room was the hiss of the electricity cooling down as the element in the light bulb gave off a dull red glow before fading completely and leaving the room in darkness.

Kate's hand was on the door but she didn't need a light to see Betty on the bed overwhelmed by her own blanket. She bit her lip. Betty had always been there to calm her when she had nightmares and they had shared the tiny bed lots of times in the before. But this was after, after Kate knows what she does, after Betty had tried to-to-with that woman, no, that animal. Kate's gripped the handle so hard she was surprised the knob didn't snap.

"Hold still," Kate whispered as Betty flinched at her touch. She carefully climbed over the blonde until she was behind her. Despite being bigger than Betty she was rarely the one that did the holding. She used to just wrap herself up in Betty's arms safe from the world, her nightmares and her father. She didn't think anything could take on Betty McRae and win.

Now though, as she slipped into the covers and placed her hand on Betty's arm, she wondered how Betty got small enough to need Kate at her back. Betty lay deadly still not moving a muscle until Kate had finally settled herself. The bed was small, made only for one, so they couldn't avoid how close they were pressed against each other.

But Betty, brave and foolish to her last breath, dared to take Kate's hand that had rested on her arm and slide it around her waist until they where hugging. Like they used to do. Betty's hand was trembling and she let go instead of lacing their fingers like they did in the past. Kate couldn't stop herself from grabbing Betty's hand and tightening her grip bringing her closer. The front of her thighs pressed all along the back of Betty's as Betty's behind settled into the natural curve of Kate's lap. Her head bowed until it was in the crook of Betty's neck like Betty's used to rest on hers.

God could see everything and everywhere but Kate imagines he wouldn't mind her comforting an old friend like this. Even Jesus comforted Mary Magdalene. The bite mark on Betty's shoulder was glaring at her in the dark and as angry as she was at it she couldn't stop herself from pressing a kiss to it.

Kate's top lip caught mostly cotton as she kissed the bite before turning into Betty's neck and placing a chaste kiss against the smooth skin there. She could feel the hitch in Betty's breath before the curve of her stomach pushed out against the back of Kate's hand. She buried her face in Betty's neck and held her the whole night.

She would save Betty. Protect her. She couldn't let her burn.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Just wanted to give special thanks to lovecatcadillac who kindly Beta'd this for me.

XxXx

The morning was as awkward as Kate expected it would be. She honestly didn't know what was worse, the embarrassing exchange they engaged in as they both disentangled themselves and moved quickly from the bed, like suspects fleeing a crime scene, or the panic-filled dash Kate had made getting out of Betty's room. She would have curled up and died if anyone saw her leaving Betty's room in her night gown when it was so obvious that she had spent the night.

Betty seemed to sense that being around Kate right now would be more than either of them could bear, so she made herself scarce, or as scarce as one could be while working the same shift. It felt like Kate was on stage – no, not on stage, since she had loved her brief time on stage with Leon. It felt like Vic Mu had shrunk until the cafeteria was the only room in the whole factory and Kate was standing in the centre of the entire world. She held her plastic tray tightly as her eyes darted around the room.

She had made a promise to herself last night to protect Betty, but in the daylight hours keeping that promise felt about as easy as tearing down the walls of Jericho by herself. Her tray was shaking slightly as she moved forward with her head down. She would love to be able to strut as confident as Gladys, or Betty, or even give an unconcerned sashay like Vera, but really, her courage could only extend so far. Her shoulders were hunched and she stared pointedly at her water glass but she was moving forward.

The conversation at the table died as she approached. For an irrational second she thought that they would send her away. "Hey Kate," Vera smiled at her as she slid up a place and gave her the seat across from Gladys. "Have you heard about Gladys's racy letters from James?"

"They are hardly racy." Gladys rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Vera, the way that you're telling it, it's like James transformed himself into the next Marquis De Sade."

The conversation continued on, thankfully without needing Kate's input. It was all she could do to sit there and eat. Even her stomach seemed to be against her, tying itself up in worried knots. All around her, whispers had broken out. Kate just knew that they were all talking about her decision to sit at the same table as Betty. She could feel the speculation and gossip as clearly as if the words were physical things being thrown at her.

"You okay?" Gladys murmured to her as Vera and Edith continued to talk.

Replying verbally seemed beyond Kate for the moment as her throat shook, warning her that any words that came out of it would make a horrible warbling sound. Instead she just nodded and still didn't look up. She knew that if she did, she would see Betty looking at her, which would not calm her in the slightest. Betty's gaze had always had an effect on Kate but rarely was it a calming one. More often than not it made her feel anxious and eager to impress or please. Kate didn't think she could deal with anymore anxiety.

She was relieved when lunch was over and she could get lost in her work. It was easier to drown out the whispers and looks when she had explosive material near her. When the end of shift came, Kate didn't immediately stop and head to the showers like she usually did. Instead she slowly cleared down her work space, making sure to keep pace with Gladys and Betty's own cleaning so that they all finished and headed to the showers at the same time.

Kate swallowed hard, trying to keep down the rising panic that had come back with a vengeance. Mrs Corbett impatiently ticked them off of her clipboard as they began to undress. Most of the red shift workers were already on the floor but a few were still changing and chatting.

"I'll trust you girls to actually shower and clock out yourselves. I have important business to attend to and I won't be held back for your private shower time," Mrs Corbett said stiffly, glaring at Gladys because she always liked to glare at Gladys. Her eyes softened as she looked at Betty. "Keep them right, McRae," she ordered.

"Will do, Mrs Corbett," Betty affirmed.

"Teacher's pet." Gladys bumped Betty's shoulder as she shrugged out of her overalls. "Do you give her a shiny apple too?"

"No, but I'll be more than happy to give you a shiny eye, the way you keep giving me lip," Betty shot back.

"Betty! I have a fiancé, I wouldn't dream of giving you lip behind James's back. You'll just have to get it from some other girl." Gladys flung her towel over her shoulder, making sure to let the end hit Betty's scarlet face.

Kate spluttered. She nearly tripped and fell as she stepped out of her overalls. She could not believe how brazen Gladys was, joking about something like that, especially since there were still other red shift workers hanging around. Judging by the look of mortification on Betty's face, neither could she. Gladys's strut to the shower said more than words ever could about how pleased she was with their reactions.

"You coming, McRae? You're wasting private shower time," Gladys's smug voice came over the rush of water and the few remaining red shift workers shot annoyed glances towards her.

"That girl thinks she's so funny," Betty growled, the smugness in Gladys's voice pulling her out of her stunned silence. Her annoyance melted when she turned towards Kate. "I get what you're doing, and I'm – I'm really – well, it's pretty swell, considering things between us, but I can wait until you're finished. This might be pushing it," Betty's eyes flicked towards the showers before going back to stare at the tile wall beside Kate's head. She hadn't looked at Kate once the entire conversation.

Kate immediately felt relief and then guilt. She picked up her towel and shook her head. "I want things to go back to normal, I miss my friends," Betty looked guilty at that which made Kate feel like a right heel because she hadn't meant to make her feel that way. "I miss you too," Kate finished quietly and the honesty was freeing. "Part of being normal is doing this," she took a deep steadying breath and tried to seem resolute. Betty regarded her warily but didn't push it like she normally would have.

A the entrance to the showers Kate's resolution and calm fled as her nerves overwhelmed her throat and croaked out her insecurities. "You won't look right?" Kate asked and hated herself a little because she knew Betty wasn't a Tom crouching at a peep hole but that's how it felt.

Betty's entire face tightened and her jaw and eyes hardened like flint. When she spoke it was tightly controlled. "No, no I won't look."

Kate knew the question had offended Betty but she could feel herself relaxing at the reassurance. Her father had left even more scars on her back and the thought of anyone, epically Betty getting a good look at them, made Kate nauseous. "Good," she breathed and stepped into the shower.

"Bout time you two, I thought I was going to start pruning," Gladys looked ready to finish up but one look at their faces made her turn around and keep washing.

Betty hissed and Kate found that even though she had made sure Betty wouldn't look at her, she couldn't stop looking at the blonde. Under the harsh lights of the factory the marks on Betty's pale skin seemed even more livid. Without the cotton vest or night dress to conceal it the bite mark on Betty's shoulder leered wetly at Kate. Gladys raised her eyebrows at the marks too but wisely didn't comment.

Betty muttered something unpleasant as the carbolic soap sods washed over the nail gouges on the back of her thighs. Kate glared at the shower head and the wall, in any direction that wasn't Betty, because she could feel simmering anger rising in her stomach at the sight of those marks. She washed quickly and left. Gladys followed her soon enough, glad to be out of the shower.

Kate roughly towelled herself dry in jerking motions as she tried to hold in her temper. Betty came out of the shower and ran smack into Kate's glare. The blonde was taken aback and slowly went to dry and dress, casting Gladys confused looks as she did so. The tension in the room was thicker than the mist from the showers that curled about the ceiling.

Gladys, being Gladys, thought it was her duty to try force the mood to cheer up with all the skill and finesse of a steamroller. "So, Betty, as it turns out you seem to be getting more than lip from another girl. It seems you're getting teeth and nails too."

"Gladys," Betty said warningly as she pulled on her trousers.

"Oh, come now, Betty, you can't keep something like this from your friends." Gladys's smile could only be described as devilish. "Who is it-?"

"Late again, Clara? Keep this up and you'll have no job to be late to," Mrs White the red shift manager's voice cut off Gladys.

A red shift worker hurried in the door, with Mrs White on her heels with her own clip board. Betty froze her coat half on and Kate bristled like a hissing cat while Gladys stared at the newcomer with unashamed curiosity. Clara, the newly named red shift worker that Kate had been mentally referring to as a vile animal paused when she realised that she was the object of intense scrutiny.

Mrs White finished her rant and walked away muttering at her clipboard. Clara looked levelly at Betty, almost sneering, which made Kate's heart rate double. How dare this woman look at Betty in such a way after all she had done? Kate grabbed Betty by the wrist and she marched forward, with a pounding in her ears that sounded like war drums. She roughly barged passed Clara, no, the animal, and none too gently shoved her against the wall and out of her way.

"Hey!" Clara snapped.

Kate whirled around to face her so quickly that Clara flinched. "Do you have a problem?" _O__ther than biting, _Kate snarled inwardly.

"You shoved me," Clara said weakly, feeling the need to stand up for herself. A foolish need from where Kate was standing.

"That is the least you deserve." Kate drew herself up. She had never wanted to physically hit someone so much in her life. Clara shrank back, looking genuinely afraid, which she ought because how dare she hurt and mark Betty? How dare she make Betty seem so small?

"Kate," Betty said, trying to use her voice alone to pull Kate away. Even now, she was not sure if she was allowed to touch Kate.

Kate ignored her in favour of glaring at Clara. She looked small now, alone and terrified of Kate and her anger. Kate found that she enjoyed the look. It made her feel powerful, towering over the red shift worker. Her anger made her invincible, it made her strong, it made her … her father.

"Kate," Betty said again and this time Kate went.

"I guess that answered my question," Gladys said, stunned, as they left.

XxXx

"... she shouldn't have made you cry," Kate said petulantly, plucking a blade of grass from the ground.

"She made Betty cry?" Gladys said, both outraged and shocked.

"I did not cry," Betty said defensively.

Kate looked sharply at Betty to sullenly contradict her protest. They sat on the hill at the park, using their coats to keep from getting soaked by the dew. They formed a little triangle on the grass with Kate as the point as they both wanted to know what had got into her.

"Well, you should have pushed her harder, then," Gladys said matter-of-factly. Kate looked at Betty triumphantly.

"Can we not talk about this?" Betty grimaced and rubbed her shoulder. The shoulder with the bite, Kate noticed with a scowl.

"Don't be so sore, Betty. It went south this time, but next time will be better." Gladys patted Betty's shoulder in sympathy.

"Next time?" both Kate and Betty said, equally alarmed.

"Yes, we'll go to the Tangiers or Sandy Shore and find you someone there." Gladys seemed

genuinely proud of her plan.

"You think it's that easy?" Betty snapped. "You're going to get me killed if you keep flapping the way that you do."

"Pssh." Gladys waved away Betty's concern which only enraged the blonde further. "We'll be discreet."

"You can't be serious, Gladys!" Kate was scandalised at the notion of Gladys furthering Betty's debauchery. She wanted to keep Betty safe and there was no way she could do that while she was running off casing girls due to Gladys's goading.

"Why not?" Gladys bristled snapping at them both. "Why shouldn't Betty be happy? She works just as hard as anyone else, and while she can be a hard-headed fool, she's honest and brave. I'm completely serious about helping my friend be happy and I see no malice or even sin in that."

That struck Betty dumb enough that she couldn't argue. Kate however felt her face heat as shame and disgust warred inside her in an unsettling and seemingly never ending conflict. Gladys tilted her chin up and looked at them imperiously, squaring her shoulders. She looked ready for a fight … but she had already won it.

"She can't find true happiness like that," Kate whispered to the grass, but she couldn't even sound convincing to herself.

"And why not? Because men like your father say so? I'm sorry, Kate. I know that even now you love him, but it is truly vexing how you can blindly follow the word of a man who marked you in such a vile way," Gladys said, steamrolling right over Kate's feeble protest.

Kate swallowed hard and couldn't look at them as she grabbed her coat and fled. She heard them both calling to her but she didn't slow. She wanted to believe her father was a good man. He had said he was only helping them, and Kate honestly believed that he believed that. So why had she left if she believed him? Simple, she couldn't take his type of 'help' anymore.

But it wasn't just her father's words that made her stomach roll at what Betty was. There was a tangled knot in her stomach that was bound up with what her father believed, what God said and what other people told her. Somewhere in that giant ball, she was trying to untangle what she believed. It was hard and frightening because she was slowly unravelling her whole world to find it. She couldn't help but resent Betty just a little for making her do this.

Kate had to stop running as the pain in her lungs and legs grew unbearable. She sat on a bus bench and tried to get her bearings. She was as physically lost as she was emotionally. Why did it have to be Betty? Why couldn't someone else have her perversion? Why couldn't Betty be normal? Kate and she could both marry men and have children. They could have two little girls and they would be best friends and grow up and live next door to each other just like their mothers. That future was so lovely and perfect and why did Betty have to ruin that by being the way she was?

Kate was panting but it wasn't from the run. Her breath was coming faster and faster and the tears pricked her eyes as she thought about the future Betty had robbed them of. How could Betty just march into Kate's life and shake it like a snow globe, causing a flurry of chaos in the beliefs that ordered Kate's world? Betty wasn't that amazing, she wasn't that good, she wasn't worth-

"Here." Kate looked up to see Betty standing in front of her, holding out an ice cream cone.

"It's mint chocolate chip. I got two saving bond stamps with them, you keep saying how you want to get a bond."

"You were my first friend." Kate's voice hitched and she ignored the stamps.

"I know," Betty said, holding her own 'Victory vanilla' ice cream cone sadly. "I'm sorry," she added, because she knew all the things Kate was thinking.

Kate felt the prickle at the back of her eye gain its first triumph as she welled up. Betty was amazing and good and worth all the heartache, because how could she not be? She chased down Kate after Kate had insulted her, bought her favourite ice cream even though Kate had only mentioned it once in passing and was now apologising for being who she was.

"I hate the thought of losing you," Kate used the napkin that came with the ice cream to wipe her eyes. "But it feels like I have, because I can't reconcile it, Betty. I thought it would be easier if I hated you, but I couldn't do that either. There's the you that I love and then there's it and – I can't hate you for it, but it won't let me..." Kate shook her head, she probably didn't make any sense.

Betty sat down beside her with a sigh and tucked the stamps into her pocket. She mirrored Kate's hunched pose as she ate her ice cream. "If it makes you feel any better," Betty said staring at the sidewalk, "I hate it too."

"That doesn't make me feel better." Kate turned towards Betty, her eyebrows together, framing her sad puppy dog eyes. "How could I ever feel better at something that makes you unhappy? Don't you know how much your happiness means to me, Betty?" All she wanted to do was make Betty normal and happy.

Betty went red and shifted away on the bench. "You shouldn't say things like that to me Kate."

"It's true," Kate said earnestly, wanting Betty to believe her. She wasn't being cruel or mean because she hated Betty – it was the complete opposite. "If I was a man, I would marry you Betty McRae and make you happy." And normal.

Betty's face really did darken this time but with anger. "You really shouldn't say things like that to me, Kate." Betty gave her a warning look but Kate didn't understand what she was being told.

"I would. And why shouldn't I say it? If you were a man, you would marry me right?" Kate continued belligerently, "and then we would never have to lose each other. Say..." A thought just occurred to her. "Is that what's wrong with you, Betty? Do you want to be a man?"

Betty's looked around to see if there was anyone close enough to hear them. She didn't relax even though there was no one else on the street. She turned back to Kate with a glare that could melt steel and Kate flinched. "You shouldn't say things like that to me because I would marry you right now as a woman! And I don't want any of us to be men," Betty hissed.

Kate's eyes widened. It was so … odd, to hear those things said about herself. No one had ever wanted her as Marion or Kate. Some had wanted a woman and she had met that low threshold but Betty knew everything there was to know about Kate and most things about Marion and still wanted to marry her. That was...

"Come on." Betty stood up, her temper burnt out, leaving behind only annoyance which was close to normal for Betty. "And eat your ice cream, it's melting everywhere!"

Kate stood and did what she was told, following Betty back to the rooming house mechanically.

XxXx

Kate lay in bed that night, trying to avoid thinking. God and her father were far too big for her small bedroom to contain and Betty was even bigger still. The pillow Kate kept at the bottom of her bed to keep her feet warm had climbed higher up the bed as she tossed and turned. She lay on her side and used the pillow to separate her bony knees, cradling it between her thighs.

Her brothers had always called her bow-legged. The few boys Kate would run into at Sunday school would follow her brothers' lead and tease her too. She had had her growth spurt early, making her tower over most of the boys her age. Her body unfortunately only grew up instead of out, making her look awkward without any womanly curves. Her red hair had crowned her gangly frame as yet another thing for boys to tease her about. Kate had never really lost the insecurities from the childish taunts but Betty had said she would marry her.

Betty had said that she would marry the knock-kneed, awkward ginger girl with no curves and Kate felt honestly flattered. It meant a lot that someone like Betty thought Kate was pretty. There was a reason that Betty had got a national commercial and it wasn't her winning personality or acting skills. The thought alone made Kate smile.

Of course they couldn't get married. They were both women and it was wrong but it was still nice to hear that someone found her attractive. Kate had thought that Betty saw her as just a woman, the way Donald saw her before Leon knocked him out cold. She didn't realise that Betty saw her as Kate as well as a woman and … of course it was wrong, but wouldn't it be amusing if they did get married?

If Kate was a man and the war was over of course, because she didn't want to get drafted. So if the war was over and Kate was a man, then she would marry Betty. Kate imagines that even as a man she would have been a singer. She would wear a suit and part and oil her hair like James did, because she always thought Gladys was lucky to be with such a well put together man. She would have wing tipped shoes and a waist coat with a pocket watch to keep track of all her engagements. But if she was a singer, where did that leave Betty? Singers had no real money until they made it big and they travelled all the time, so even if she did buy Betty a house, they would hardly ever see each other. Betty could come with her but she doubted Betty would like being on the road or enjoy hanging around in bars like a devoted fan. The idea of Betty fawning over her as she came offstage made Kate snort into her pillow. There was no way Betty McRae would ever fawn over a man, even if that man was Kate. She just couldn't see it.

Kate frowned and shifted causing the pillow between her legs to brush against her panties. She tutted as she realised the state of her night dress, she must have been really tossing and turning for it to have been shoved so high. She didn't bother to fix it as she realised that she would be a terrible husband for Betty.

Betty on the other hand, Betty would be a great husband the more Kate thought about it. At first she imagined Betty to be a blue collar handy man or mechanic. She could certainly see Betty with her sleeves pushed up, grease in her blonde hair and on her cheeks … but then the thought of Betty in one of those three-piece suits like James stuck in Kate's head and refused to leave.

Betty wouldn't shirk her role as the bread winner to chase a singing career and would have a job in the city working nine to five. She would have bought Kate a nice house out in the suburbs with a front and back garden, like Betty had always wanted. She would come home every day on the train, probably after six because Betty couldn't drive and would have spent all her money on buying the house. They would talk about getting a car but not seriously because they liked walking everywhere hand in hand.

Kate would have dinner ready for her when she got in. She would greet her with a kiss at the doorway and take her coat and brief case as Betty grumbled about the stupidity of the men she worked with. Some things would never change, no matter what form Betty came in.

They would have three kids, maybe a fourth. Betty of course would have been against it at the start, but Kate would have talked her around. The oldest would be a boy, followed by a girl and another boy, all a year apart. Betty would have been terrible with them at the start. She would have been afraid to hold them and panicked about dropping them. Even as they grew older she would interact with them cautiously, having tea with the little girl in confusion and no doubt trying to get her to play with the boys' toys instead. Betty would be great with the boys, though. Kate could just see her chasing them around the back garden playing cowboys and Indians. She would be like a giant kid herself once she shrugged off her insecurity.

Kate would have to be the sensible one. She would have to go out and break up the game and send the children to bed while Betty would half-heartedly back her up. Then it would just be the two of them, kids in bed, baby fast asleep (if they decided on the fourth) and the dinner dishes washed and put away.

They would have a radio and their own record player. At the end of a long day Kate would be glad to collapse on the sofa with a glass of wine and listen to some music or stories. But not every night, because there were other duties a wife would have to attend to.

Kate blushed into her top pillow which was just silly because there was no one around to see.

Some nights Betty would just give her a look, they wouldn't have needed to say it, not after three or four children, but Kate would know that something more would be expected of her that night. Betty would sit in the living room after the house had settled in a large wing backed chair in front of their open fire. Kate had always loved big open fire places. She would still be in her suit with her polished black shoes but the jacket would be hung up and the sleeves of the shirt rolled up and maybe one or two buttons undone. The tie would hang in a loose noose around her neck skewing the collar. Without a word, with just a look, Kate would know not to go to the sofa or switch on the radio, but to cross the room and straddle her husband's lap.

Betty would still have her blonde hair, not oiled but loose and free, and her beauty mark and little ball of a chin that Kate would kiss. Betty's hands would be so sure and steady as they found the zipper on the back of Kate's dress. Kate would protest about doing this outside of their bedroom, but they would both know it was hollow and Betty would ignore her until the top of her dress was scrunched at her waist with the bottom about to follow it. She would tower over Betty in this position but that wouldn't make her feel awkward or lanky because it was the best position for her husband to kiss her neck and cup her breasts – oh!

Kate bit her lip as her hips began to rock against the pillow unconsciously.

All those things her father called her and warned her about would melt away under Betty. Betty wouldn't care that she wanted her touch. As her husband Betty would enjoy the wanting and burning she would cause inside her wife. Kate would never have to be ashamed of the rolling waves of desire that would sometimes overcome her. Betty would understand and Betty would provide Kate with the relief that she needed.

Kate's fantasy ran frustratingly headlong into her ignorance.

She didn't know how Betty would relieve her. She didn't know what happened beyond kissing and touching. Betty would have a husband's bulge and Kate would touch it and imagined that Betty would put it inside her, or rub it against her, or do something with it that would relieve the ache inside her. Gladys had talked coyly of what happens between lovers while Vera had slyly implied, but none had ever gone into the description Kate secretly desired. She had never been brave or rude enough to ask.

With a groan, Kate flopped onto her back, kicking the pillow between her knees away. She felt far too hot for her little bed. She flapped the blankets trying to get air around herself but was still overheated and restless. How she hated summer and its stifling heat. There was a hollow, wanting ache that called for her but she didn't know how to fix it. She smothered her face in her pillow and groaned. She rolled over and tried to get to sleep.

The almost supernatural awareness Kate had of her body bordered on painful. It was definitely frustrating. She let out an irritated sigh. It served her right, thinking about silly things like marriage and Betty as a man. Betty could never be a man and Kate could never make her normal that way.

XxXx

Kate still got a little flustered when soldiers asked her to dance. Seeing the fresh handsome faces in uniform holding out their hand to her made her heart flutter. It rarely happened as the few dances she had been to, she had hid behind Betty just watching everyone. The soldiers and the women looked so glamorous and filled with life she couldn't help feeling a little dowdy next to them.

Betty always rolled her eyes and told her she was being silly. She would tell Kate that any of those stuffed shirts would be on their knees begging for a dance if Kate would only stop hiding behind her. Of course, Kate always protested and stayed right next to Betty, who she thought must have been terribly lonely at these dances because she never danced with anyone.

Kate had thought the great Betty must be embarrassed by her dancing or even shy around men. That had made her laugh, Betty always scowled at the soldiers that had asked her to dance. It amused Kate to think that big brash Betty the Bomb Girl was afraid of making a fool of herself in front of so many men.

Now she knew different.

All the times Kate had coaxed her into dancing Betty had been stiff at the start before she relaxed and showed that she did possess some grace, not much, but enough that Kate didn't have to worry about her toes. Kate had thought she was helping her best friend relax and gain confidence so that she would say yes to the next soldier that asked. But Betty never said yes and Kate was just happy to be helping her friend so she never pushed. She also liked the fact that she got to lead since she was taller and more confident. It wasn't often Kate excelled at something and got to teach Betty.

"Easy there!" Derrick, the solider that had asked her to dance, laughed as she stumbled slightly.

"I'm so sorry," Kate smiled at him. Thinking of Betty always knocked her off her feet a little.

"That's okay, I don't mind catching pretty ladies." Derrick gave her a charming smile.

Kate wanted to reply, but out of the corner of her eye she saw a solider heading towards Betty, looking overly confident. Betty, as usual, was nursing her drink by a table. Gladys was nowhere to be seen, leaving Betty all alone since Vera didn't come to dances anymore because of her scars. The three of them had come together, their first social outing as a group since Kate got back, because Kate was trying. She was honestly trying to be Betty's friend – didn't Jesus say to hate the sin and love the sinner?

"Oh, poor Bob," Derrick laughed as he followed Kate's gaze.

"Why poor Bob?" Kate asked shooting him a quick glance before returning her gaze to Betty.

"Asking the Bomb Girl to dance," Derrick grinned. "The boys and I have all heard the rumours that she doesn't dance with no guy. We've been wondering who's going to be brave enough to try and turn Bomb Girl into Bomb Woman. I guess Bob fancies himself lucky."

"That's not very nice." Kate stopped dancing. Derrick noticed her change in mood and immediately folded his face into a contrite expression.

"Hey, we don't mean no harm by it. It's just a little queer is all," Derrick shrugged. His words were like a bucket of cold water over Kate. Queer, strange, abnormal, those were all the things people had began to say about Betty.

"She's not strange." Kate shook her head, stepping back again from Derrick as he tried to reach out and calm her. "Betty isn't bad just because she doesn't want to dance with soldiers! Maybe she can't dance, maybe she's embarrassed and all you're doing is reminding her of that and making her feel bad and uncomfortable. You should be ashamed of yourself!" Kate said hotly with tears in her eyes. Her voice wasn't very loud or even strong but Derrick looked panicked anyway.

"Hey! Don't cry!" he pleaded "I'll go over there right now and drag Bob away. I swear we didn't mean nothing by it. And hey – look, she doesn't seem to mind."

Kate looked over and was surprised to see that instead of Betty's irritated scowl, there was a reluctant twist of her mouth. The same twist she got when she found something Kate said really funny but didn't want Kate to know. Bob was waving his arms apparently in the middle of some action-packed story and Betty didn't seem to mind.

"See? So it's all okay now, right?" Derrick asked, approaching her slowly like she was a wild animal about to be spooked.

Kate let him draw her back into his arms, still on the verge of tears. He held her and began to rock soothingly until they were almost dancing again. He placed his hand on the back of her head encouraging her to place her head on his shoulder. She eventually did, keeping her head turned so she could still watch Betty and Bob.

When the song was over, Derrick gave her a hasty bow and retreated. He looked glad to be

rid of her and Kate didn't really blame him. She knew her face must be red and puffy in her attempts not to cry. Those people didn't have the right to say those things about Betty. Talking about her behind her back was just so cruel!

Kate entered the bathroom hiding her face from the three women that exited. She hated to cry and she really hated to be seen to cry. She grabbed some tissue and dampened it in order to press against her eyes.

She honestly didn't know what was wrong with her. The wonderful feeling that had fluttered whenever Derrick had asked her to dance had was no longer there. The butterflies had died and their little bodies turned into heavy weights that dragged down both her stomach and her mood. She clutched at the rim of the sink taking deep breaths. The door opened and without thinking she looked up.

"Bet-?" But it was only Gladys standing in the doorway.

Gladys closed the door behind her before she crossed the small distance and took the wet tissue from Kate. Without a word she tilted Kate's face towards her and began to softly dab at her cheeks. Kate relaxed, both glad and disappointed it wasn't Betty.

"Now, what's all these tears for?" Gladys chided her softly.

"There's no tears," Kate said but sniffed afterwards. She must look like one of those crazy women right now.

"Honestly, Kate." Gladys rolled her eyes, exasperated. Her sympathy never did last long. "I noticed you running right to the bathroom as soon as the music stopped. Did that soldier take advantage?"

"No." Kate shook her head furiously. She didn't want to get Derrick in trouble after he had already been put out by her fit on the dance floor. "I'm sorry to bother you. Honestly, Gladys, I'm glad you're watching out for me. I really appreciate it."

"Oh, is that what this is about?" Gladys said her voice far too knowing and superior. She sounded exactly like she used to when she first started working at the factory, with her rich girl tone that knew everything about nothing. Kate couldn't help but bristle at hearing it. "You're upset because Betty didn't come running?"

"I am not!" Kate said, alarmed. She felt like stamping her foot under Gladys's smug look.

"So you're just upset about the soldier that's making her laugh?" Gladys turned and lent against the sink taking up most of the space in the small bathroom.

"I'm not upset about that!" Kate snapped.

"Seems to me you are," Gladys continued. Her voice was hard and brooked no argument. Kate had never heard such sand being directed at her. Gladys was always nice to her. "The way you spent the whole dance glaring at him? I thought the poor boy was going to die before he even met the Germans!"

"That's not true." Kate shook her head. She could feel the tears returning.

Gladys sighed. "Kate, you can't keep punishing her. Isn't this what you wanted? Betty talking to men and being normal? You can't throw a tantrum every time she pays attention to someone that isn't me or you and not expect her to get ideas."

"I – I- " Kate started but couldn't go on. She felt so lost. She didn't want to lose Betty but she also didn't want to go to Hell. She looked at Gladys helplessly, she didn't know what was going on or what to do.

Gladys pushed herself away from the sink and took Kate's hand. "If you can't give her what she needs, which is perfectly fine and nothing to feel guilty about, then you should let her find someone else who can. You can't do this halfway." She gave Kate's hand a squeeze of understanding. "Let her go Kate. You both deserve to be happy."

Kate let Gladys lead her out of the bathroom. The band was playing a slow song as the evening wound down. Kate's eyes automatically searched for Betty in the crowd. She caught glimpses of the blonde woman in between the dancing pairs. Betty seemed to be searching for something too. When she caught sight of Kate, she stopped. Their gaze stretched across the room and the dancing couples, calming the turmoil inside Kate. Betty offered her a tiny hesitant smile and Kate's heart broke.

She didn't want to let Betty go.

XxXx

"It's late, I better go." Betty stood up, twisting into a long stretch that pulled her shirt up. For a brief second a small slash of pale flesh peeked out at Kate before Betty dropped her arms with a sigh.

"You can, uh, sleep in here," Kate offered, mentally cursing the tiny crack in her voice.

Betty turned to look at her suspiciously. They used to always sleep together but that was before. They had even slept next to each other after Kate had comforted Betty after her night with the red shift whore. But it had always been in Betty's bed so Kate had the option of leaving whenever she wanted. There was an unspoken understanding that Kate's room was her sanctuary and Betty didn't have the automatic invitation that she had had before.

"If you want." Kate plucked at her covers and avoided looking at Betty's eyes.

"I'll go get my night dress," Betty said after an excruciating silence. Kate looked up ready to protest but stopped at the last moment. While it might have been okay for them to have slept in their underwear before – now, now it wasn't okay. Kate bit her lip and nodded.

She took the opportunity to change into her own night dress and get into bed. When Betty came in with her own white cotton sleepwear Kate nearly laughed. Despite the hot night, Betty's nightdress covered her from her neck to her ankles and wrists. Kate didn't think Betty even owned something so modest. It looked like something a Victorian would wear.

"Shut up," Betty muttered with a blush. "It was my grandmother's."

"It looks like it," Kate giggled.

Betty scowled and tugged the covers away from Kate playfully. Then her smile dropped as she looked at the bed and back to Kate. She was clearly waiting for her directions. Kate's own smile faded as she thought about this. The last time Betty had slept in her bed she usually slept behind her or with Kate's head on her chest. She nodded for Betty to get in in front of her so they would be sleeping facing each other. It seemed like the safest option.

After Betty had settled down, no easy feat considering the small bed and their determination not to touch, there was silence.

"Is that a pillow?" Betty asked at last, breaking the silence as she looked down at her feet.

"Yes, that's my bottom pillow," Kate explained. She couldn't make out much of Betty's face in the dark but she could tell by the other woman's snort that she didn't think much of Kate's bottom pillow. "It keeps my feet warm," she said defensively.

"Which is really important in August," Betty laughed at her.

"Well, you don't have to use it," Kate huffed, settling down to sleep.

Kate woke up on her side with her foot pillow between her knees. One of Betty's legs was slung over the pillow and Kate's calf. The blonde had her face burrowed into the top pillow as she was lying mostly on her stomach, forcing Kate to the edge of the bed. Kate grumbled a little shifting so she had more room.

The firm edge of the pillow travelled higher during Kate's wiggling, brushing against her. Kate's breath caught. Slowly, her hand reached down and angled the pillow higher. She didn't want to disturb Betty but she had got used to rubbing against the pillow in the mornings and she was pretty sure she could do it without waking the other woman. Her fingers edged up the hem of her nightdress until the pillow was under it. She placed the hem back down rather than letting it sit at her waist like she normally would. She didn't want to be indecent.

Barely moving her hips, she began to rock softly. Betty was taking up most of the room so her grinding was much shorter than normal but Kate began to get that nice warm sensation in her belly nonetheless. She began to idly plan what to do on her day off as she rocked and squeezed her thighs together. Her eyes fluttered shut. She wished she could angle the pillow up more but with Betty in the way that was impossible.

Kate opened her eyes only to find one big wide blue eye staring at her like a monster from the other pillow. Kate jumped, pushing Betty back in alarm. Betty's face turned towards her fully as she turned on her side.

"Kate, what are you doing?" Betty asked, sounding as if someone was strangling her.

"Jeez, Betty, you gave me a heart attack! What are you doing, staring with one eye out of the side of your head!" Kate's heart was still pounding. Her hips began to rock again softly.

"Kate!" Betty cried in alarm, half sitting up. "Stop that!" she pleaded.

"What?" Kate frowned at her.

"The – the rocking!" Betty uncharacteristically stuttered, waving jerkily at Kate's still moving hips.

"Why? It feels good," Kate said, puzzled. She moved over a little. "Here, you try. It's like scratching an itch but more soothing."

"I'll say it's soothing!" Betty looked like a wild thing. Her hair was tussled from sleep and her eyes were far too wide and alert for this early in the morning. Kate rolled her eyes, the only good thing about Betty waking up is that now that the blonde was on her side, Kate could lengthen her grinding.

"Kate! You got to stop." Betty's eyes closed desperately as she watched Kate's rocking get slower and longer.

"Why?" Kate asked again, only this time her breathing hitched.

Betty groaned, looking like she was in physical pain. "Because," she whispered, her face going red, "it's sexual."

Kate stopped immediately. "It is not!" she denied, sitting up and away from Betty.

"Yes it is," Betty said, pressing the heels of her hand against her eyes.

"You're just being – being-" Kate spluttered, trying to think of a word before gasping out,

"Dirty minded!"

"Oh, really?" Betty flung her hands down from her face to glare at Kate. "Okay then." She threw the blanket off the bed and sat up. Before Kate could react Betty grabbed her upper arms and dragged Kate forward. She struggled as Betty pulled her onto her lap, but Betty was far too strong. "If it ain't sexual, use my thigh!"

"What?" Kate tried to jerk away but Betty grabbed her roughly around the waist with one arm, keeping Kate on top of her. With her other hand, Betty dragged the hem of her long nightdress up enough to free her legs. Kate struggled and tried to get away – until she felt the smooth warmth of Betty's thigh pressing between her own.

"I'm not having you calling me indecent when you're the one that – whoa!" Betty's words were cut off as Kate's upper torso surged forward and managed to throw Betty back on the bed. Kate's movement had the added affect of pressing her ass backwards along Betty's thigh. Leaning forward opened Kate in a different way that made her eyes widen.

Betty froze, wide-eyed against the headboard. Her eyes fell to where Kate's centre pressed against her thigh. Kate's nightgown obscured the view and kept what was left of her modesty. As Kate stared at the blonde, Betty swallowed hard. The entire third Reich could have marched outside their window and Betty wouldn't have noticed. Kate could see another sort of war raging across Betty's face before she gave in and flexed her thigh.

Kate gasped and her head fell forward. Her hands clutched the bed sheet on either side of Betty as she slide backwards. Betty's thigh was a firm pulsing muscle of soft, hot, flesh that spread her wider than the pillow had ever done. Kate looked up at Betty from under her lashes as her red hair fell about her face, still messy from the fight. Betty looked both petrified and intense. Kate saw something powerful in those dark blue eyes that made her involuntarily clench around Betty's thigh.

"Uhh," Betty breathed, her eyes squeezing shut. The heat just below Kate's stomach flared hotly at the sound and she gasped at the sensation.

The only thing that Kate wanted to do was start rocking, but there was no way on earth that she could do that and believe she wasn't being sexual. She bit her lip hoping the pain would take away her body's slavish focus on Betty's thigh.

Kate was shocked when she suddenly found herself on her back as Betty pushed her away and stood up. Her long nightdress fell down like a heavy curtain. "I told you I wasn't lying," Betty said, her voice straining to be normal. She patted down her blonde hair and smoothed down her nightdress with her back to Kate. "Bet you'll think twice before doing that again in front of company." Betty tried to laugh but it sounded strained.

Kate watched her leave clutching the blanket to herself. She stared at the closed door in silence before she roughly grabbed her bottom pillow and threw it hard against the wall.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks again to lovecatcadillac who edited and made this not suck. If you're in the mood for more Bomb Girls fic check her out she writes the best in town.

XxXx

Kate wasn't sure how both she and Betty had managed to avoid each other so well. They lived across the hallway from each other, rode the same tram to work and had the exact same shift. But nearly a week had gone by, and the only times they had seen each other was the twenty minutes during lunch. They both sat at the same table, with the same friends, but even then Kate was at one end and Betty at the other. They managed to have conversations with everyone except each other, without letting their tense atmosphere bring down the mood of the entire workforce.

It had been a whole week since the incident in Kate's bedroom that Kate was not thinking about at all. Except that she couldn't get the feeling of Betty's thigh out of her head. How soft and warm it was and how it felt pressed against her _there_. The feeling of Betty lying underneath her made her head swim. She couldn't afford to be distracted but she found herself trailing off mid sentence when she would catch sight of Betty laughing or yelling at the girls on the floor, and Gladys would just look at her knowingly.

There was a loud crash and everyone hit the floor and covered their heads instinctively. "What was that?!" Kate asked Gladys who was lying next to her.

"I have no idea," Gladys said, poking her head up now that they had established that the factory wasn't falling down around them.

"Mrs Corbett!"

Kate and Gladys got to their feet and joined the crowd that had formed. "The crane malfunctioned and dropped a crate of shells," Kate over heard Alice explaining to her friends.

"I'm fine!" Mrs Corbett's voice rang out. "Someone get a doctor! Betty, can you hear me?"

Kate's heart stopped. She pushed her way to the front nearly throwing people off their feet in her rush. Mrs Corbett was leaning heavily on Marco Moretti as she shouted orders. Betty lay sprawled on the ground with heavy shell casings piled on top of her. Two of the men were pulling them off her as the on call doctor finally arrived with the stretcher.

"Is she okay?" Kate asked frantically.

"She's alive," the doctor said gruffly, holding Betty's wrist. There was no blood but Betty didn't so much as twitch at the strange touch. He helped move the remaining casing shells off of her and laid Betty on the stretcher. "Let's get her to the hospital."

"Okay girls, you heard the doctor, she's alive – now get back to work!" Mr Akins was shouting at them. He stopped to talk to Mrs Corbett and nodded towards the ambulance.

"I'm going with her." Kate went to follow but Mr Atkins stuck his arm out to stop her.

"Where are you off to?" he asked.

Gladys glared. "Betty is our friend. Surely you can understand we wouldn't be safe around explosives right now?"

"There ain't no room in the ambulance for both of you and you still have half your shift left," Mr Akins growled.

"Mrs Corbett!" Kate implored.

The older woman frowned at them but seeing their determined faces, she reconsidered her gut reaction to automatically reject anything Gladys asked for. "They're the girl's only family," Mrs Corbett said softly to Mr Atkins. "And they would only cause the other girls to worry if they're left here."

Mr Akins considered it before he threw up his hands, exasperated. "Fine," he said gruffly, pointing his finger at both of them."But I'm docking your pay! Now get out of here before I change my mind!"

Kate went to charge after Betty but Gladys' cool head prevailed. "There won't be any room to ride with them. We'll take my car." Gladys pulled Kate away as Marco helped Mrs Corbett to the ambulance.

XxXx

Kate sat, staring at her hands, on the wooden seat in the hospital hallway. She hadn't got to see Betty and no-one was telling her anything. Gladys had run off to torture a nurse but when Kate went to follow, she found that her feet were lead weights. Dread had dragged her down to sit in one of the chairs that lined the corridor and had yet to release her.

She honestly couldn't remember the last thing she had said to Betty. If something irreversible happened to her, Kate wouldn't know what to do with herself...

"Miss Andrews?"

Kate looked up to find Mrs Corbett standing in front of her. "Mrs Corbett, is Betty going to be okay?" Kate stood quickly wiping at her eyes roughly.

"She's going to be fine." The normally stern woman allowed her control to slip long enough for her relief to show through. "The doctors are worried about her head so they plan on keeping her overnight. Other than that, she has a broken wrist and cracked ribs. I'm going to talk to Mr Akins and see if he'll put her on a lighter duty."

"Oh, thank God," Kate breathed, slumping back down into her chair. She took deep breaths to steady herself, but the dread still coiled in her stomach.

"Are you okay, Miss Andrews?" Mrs Corbett tilted her head as she took Kate in. Kate knew that she probably wasn't looking her best, and that the supervisor was far too observant to miss anything, or put it down to simple worry for a friend, which should be all it was... "Miss Andrews?"

"Betty's a sinner." Kate hated sounding like a child, but as she looked up at Mrs Corbett so lost and confused, a child was how she felt.

"So I've heard," Mrs Corbett said in her normal reserved tone. It was a step above her suspicious tone that she usually used on Kate or her disdainful tone when speaking to Gladys.

"She's not right, but when I saw her lying there … when I thought that she might not be in the world anymore … that wasn't right either..." Kate bit her lip to stop herself from saying more.

Mrs Corbett looked taken aback but she was back to her frown in seconds. She looked up and down the corridor before sitting stiffly beside Kate on the edge of her chair. She stared at the plain white paint of the opposite wall. "I don't know much about Betty McRae's private life. Frankly, it is neither my business nor desire to know more. That being said however, I've heard disturbing things about her. Do you know what I think?"

Kate met Mrs Corbett's stern gaze for a second before she looked away and nodded silently.

Mrs Corbett went on, "Miss McRae scored an impressive ninety-five when I retested you girls. She saved my life today and would do so again for any of her colleagues. I can judge Miss McRae for her sins, but I can also judge her for her actions, and those are exemplary."

"But they say it's wrong," Kate protested weakly, her shoulders hunched in on herself and the curled dread inside her.

"_They _should stop spending so much time talking about other folks," Mrs Corbett snapped. "I believe in judging people by their actions, because that has to be enough. You can't forget all the good a person has done and hold one bad thing against them. People shouldn't be tarred and feathered over one mistake." Her hand pressed against her stomach fleetingly before she folded her hands in her lap.

"Mrs Corbett! Finally! How is Betty? I've chased down a hundred doctors and they've all pled ignorance. I swear all the intelligent men are on the front line." Gladys hurried down the corridor, her coat flapping as she rushed. "I swear a nurse was going to blacken my eyes if I didn't leave their office."

"Miss McRae is injured but fine," Mrs Corbett said briskly as she stood up. "I'll be heading back to work now. Give Miss McRae my regards when she wakes up. I'll stop by tomorrow for a visit. My daughter Sheila can give you updates."

"Goodbye Mrs Corbett," they both chorused, Gladys slightly more energetically than Kate. Mrs Corbett hesitated as she looked at Kate, looking as if she would say something, but in the end she turned and left.

"She hot footed it out of here rather quick, considering it was her tail Betty saved." Gladys frowned after Mrs Corbett before she turned back to Kate. "Wouldn't you say? Kate? Kate!"

Kate had already left to find Betty.

XxXx

"Miss McRae, please get back in the bed!" The annoyed nurse tried to shoo Betty back into bed. The blonde was not being very co-operative as she tried to get dressed. "Miss McRae, you have not been discharged!"

"This ain't no POW wow camp, I don't see how you can keep me here against my will," Betty growled. Her threat was less than convincing when she fell out of the bed, tangled in her jacket.

"Betty!" Kate rushed to help her.

"I'm okay, just a bit woozy from the drugs they shot me with," Betty grimaced, clinging to Kate as she fended off the nurse's irate help. "Just help me out of here."

"Betty, you've been hurt. You have to let the doctors help you." Kate leaned her against the bed. She kept one hand on her to make sure she didn't fall. She stroked the hair out of Betty's face, careful of the bandage wrapped around her head. Betty's face had been spared from abuse, which Kate was thankful for. She loved Betty's face.

"I hate hospitals. That's why I didn't visit poor Vera." Betty was holding onto Kate to keep herself steady. She looked as white as a sheet and damn near ready to throw up.

"Miss McRae, you've suffered numerous broken ribs, a broken wrist and probably a concussion. You can't simply go home and be by yourself," the nurse tutted.

"Lady, I live in a house with forty other women, I couldn't be alone even if I wanted to be." Betty glared fuzzily, not really seeing the nurse.

"Broken ribs aren't so bad." Kate tried to smile. "They hurt because they can't put a cast on them, but the pain won't be that bad, so long as you don't go dancing anytime soon."

"I'm terrible at dancing," Betty snorted.

"You're not so bad when you dance with me," Kate said softly. Betty ducked her head so she didn't have to look at her.

"Please, Kate," Betty begged. "Don't make me stay here."

The complex tone Betty used pulled something deep inside Kate and she tightened her grip on the injured woman protectively. "She's coming home with me," she said firmly, looking to the nurse.

The nurse rolled her eyes and looked like she was about to argue when Gladys made one of her dramatic entrances. "Wonderful! Nurse … Sydney, I'm afraid Betty is just a terrible patient. To spare you the trouble we'll take her home. My car's outside, so if you could just run along and get whatever medicine our Betty needs, that will be most appreciated."

"The doctor hasn't signed off on her yet," the nurse huffed. She was yet another person to take an instant dislike to Gladys.

"Well, let's go get him then," Gladys said briskly, sweeping the nurse out of the room. She gave Kate a wink over her shoulder as she left.

"She's annoying, but at least she's on my side." Betty shook her head and then immediately stopped to groan. "Can you give me my clothes?"

Kate had to help Betty change as the woman couldn't stand under her own power. When the doctor came into the room Betty sat on the visitors' chair rather than the bed. The doctor glared and flipped through his chart muttering to himself.

"So, you're leaving against medical advice," he snapped his chart closed and glared. "Can't start expecting women to be rational now I guess … if you insist on this course of action, which I thoroughly advise you not to, you'll need someone to monitor you, make sure you take your pain killers, help you change your bandages. Do you have someone?"

"I'll do it," Kate said quickly when Betty looked at the floor.

The doctor scowled and handed Kate a brown table box. "Two of these every four hours, and change the bandages every three days."

"What about work?" Betty grunted. "I have to shower every day."

"You won't be fit for much more than sweeping," the doctor scoffed.

"I can't lose my job!" Betty protested.

"Mrs Corbett said she would take care of it, you just take care of yourself," Gladys chastised. "Now, let's get you home so you can lie down."

Betty relaxed and allowed Gladys and Kate to prop her up on either side of them.

XxXx

Kate sat in a chair beside Betty's bed watching her sleep. She would never get used to Betty seeming so small. Even her thin blanket seemed to overwhelm her in the single bed. It was so hard to see Betty's shallow breathing in the dim light of the street lamp outside her window, so Kate placed her hand on Betty's chest to reassure herself that she was still breathing.

The atmosphere at work had radically changed towards Betty. The girls were less hostile towards her for the most part, although this was probably more to do with fresh gossip and news of Hitler's European push. Betty's difference was old news and less interesting, especially now that she had done something so brave and saved Mrs Corbett. The men would have been just as bad as they always were, except that Betty had surprisingly earned herself a fierce guard dog in the form of Marco Moretti, who had all but hugged her on her first day back. He'd made it clear to the men that he was firmly on Betty's side and wouldn't tolerate their cheek towards her.

It had made Betty both steaming mad and relieved.

Of course Kate had stuck to Betty like a shadow when she could. On the tram, she elbowed anyone that even looked like they would invade Betty's personal space and risk accidentally nudging her injured ribs. At the factory she took to carrying Betty's lunch tray and would have cut her meat for her if Betty hadn't threatened her with a butter knife. Vera was beside herself with amusement at Kate's mothering and took every opportunity to needle Betty about it. Gladys was disturbingly quiet about the whole thing, preferring to tease Betty about her skipping out on real work.

"She's pushing a broom and checking inventory now, but just you wait, in a few months she'll be trying to take over Mrs Corbett's cushy job," Gladys would grin.

Betty had grumbled about the light duties and insisted she was fine, despite being unable to reach above shoulder height without yelping. She didn't really know how to react to Kate following her like a puppy either. Kate knew that Betty was confused, before the accident they had been avoiding each other and now she couldn't turn around without Kate or Leon (on Kate's orders) looking out for her.

Kate just couldn't tear herself away. Betty looked like herself, strong and confident but then she would wince, or catch her breath and grimace in pain when she though no one was watching. She was like an injured bird and Kate just wanted to … the dread pulled at her again. She couldn't hide in ignorance, she couldn't stop looking at Betty or for Betty, or remembering how her thigh had felt, or how warm she was, or how they fit together and how that could have all ended. How the world could have taken Betty away from her.

In the dark room, Kate watched over Betty. She snuck in after the blonde had taken her painkillers and fallen asleep. She just wanted to make sure Betty was here, that she was okay. She realised that she seemed like some sort of lurch sitting in the dark watching a sleeping woman, but she was Kate and that was Betty and somehow that made it okay, right?

Kate's hand rested on Betty's chest rose and fell with the blonde's even breathing. With every rise more of Betty's heat and softness pushed against Kate's hand only to draw her down deeper into Betty with every exhale. The rise and fall was a hypnotic rhythm that Kate couldn't resist as Betty's lips seemed to get closer and closer until - for the first time in Kate's life, she kissed someone. It was soft and gentle, and just wonderful, and Kate didn't know what her heart was telling her other than it was filled. It was filled with Betty and that was all she needed – or it was, until Betty kissed back. The softness gave way to pressure and heat with the tiniest hint of wetness that blanketed Kate's senses, making her gasp, enthralled at the dizzy rush, for the brief second it lasted. Then Betty shot up like she had been electrocuted and leapt across the room leaving Kate reeling on the bed.

"Shit!" Betty clutched at her ribs as she collapsed against the wall. The sudden movement took its toll on her. Kate immediately shot up and reached out to help. Betty flinched. "Kate, what the hell?" She sounded angry and confused.

"I-I'm sorry!" Kate said anxiously. "I-I just..." Couldn't stop herself, couldn't resist.

"Why did you kiss me?!" Betty hissed. She looked like she was being torn in two.

"I..." Kate began, then faltered. If she said it, if she spoke, that made it real, that put all she felt out there. Betty looked at her and the pure torture on her face compelled Kate to speak. "I wanted to," Kate's voice shuddered. "I've wanted to for – for a long time."

"But Kate..." The last time Kate had seen Betty's face this broken was when she was leaving with her father. "You said it – I, was disgusting."

"It is," Kate breathed, just as broken. She was just as broken as Betty. Betty flinched again. "Betty, it is." Kate wanted to reach out to her so badly. "Betty, it is wrong. Wanting is wrong. And I have never wanted anyone as badly as I want you. All my life my father has told me that women are sin. That we're base, and lustful creatures, that have to be tamed and trained out of it. I _wanted_, I wanted a lot and he would catch me looking – wanting, and he would try his best to beat it out of me. It got to be that every time I started to want, I would get afraid of the pain that would follow." The scars on her back burned dully. Kate's eyes were glassy as she looked at Betty. She was trying to explain, but it just seemed to make things worse as Betty looked ready to be sick. "Every time I look at you, all I feel is want … and I'm just waiting for the belt to drop."

Betty's mouth was open, between a frown and gasp, as she tried to taken Kate in. Kate held herself tightly, trying to think of anything but the dread that was shaking her body or the scars on her back that were burning like a warning.

"Kate..." Betty sounded lost.

"I'm so sorry," Kate gasped out and fled. Betty didn't follow her.

XxXx

"Oh, Church Mouse," Leon said with soft sympathy, as he placed a big hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry Leon." Kate cleared her throat. "I didn't mean to ruin our music lesson. Just let me wipe my eyes and we can get back to it." She hadn't told him what had happened, of course, but she had choked up in the middle of their breathing exercises.

"You take your time," he said, rubbing her shoulder a little before he pulled back. "Would you like me to get you a drink?"

"No, thank you." Kate didn't think she would be able to stop at just one, and who knew what she would do after that? Leon shot her an understanding look. She was grateful to know him; he seemed to be the steadiest thing in her life.

He had been annoyed when she had first come back. Her leaving without a word to go back to the man that hit her had rankled Leon in all the wrong ways. He had refused to speak to her until she had promised she had come to stay and that she would never see him again. Even then, he had only begrudgingly answered her direct questions.

But he couldn't stay mad at her for long, especially when she kept coming to lessons looking troubled. He was also the only one she could talk to about Betty without fear. Leon was just as god-fearing as Kate, but he was relaxed about it in a way that astounded her. He knew about Betty, he had been there after all, but he never condemned or even really commented on it, except when Kate asked. His responses had been resounding and confident, even as he shrugged.

"But it's wrong, Leon," Kate had said when she first came back.

"Lots of things are wrong in this world," Leon replied. "I just go by what wrongs affect me."

"It's a sin!"

"That's what some say," Leon would shrug.

"How can she be so good and still have those urges?" Kate would attempt to understand. "Can't she just change and not be that way?"

"Can't change what a person's born with," Leon said, tapping pointedly on his dark skin.

"Why can't I just be done with her?" Kate remembered asking beseechingly.

"Oh, Church Mouse," Leon would sigh. "Here, have another drink."

Kate came back from the bathroom to see Leon fusing of a record player. He turned and gave her a bright smile before picking up a record. "I was going to save this until later, but I think you'll like it. It's Billie Holiday, I just got it." Leon smiled gently at her.

Kate perked up excitedly. "Do you think I would be able to sing it?"

"Church Mouse, you haven't even heard it yet!" Leon laughed reproachfully. He then went to set it in the player, only to hesitate as he re-read the label. "Actually," he hedged, suddenly uncomfortable, "on second thoughts, it's probably best that you don't listen to this one right now."

"What?" Kate said, alarmed. "No! You can't just tease me like that! Please, Leon."

"Miss Kate..." Leon shook his head. "I don't know..."

"Come on!" Kate begged. Nothing cheered her up more than Ms Holiday. She made a grab for the record, but Leon held it out of reach.

"Okay! Okay, calm down," Leon gave in. He played the record and watched Kate intently.

"_I'm a fool to want you, I'm a fool to want you, to want a love that can't be true..."_

Kate listened to the record with a blank face. Her usual tapping and swaying when listening to a new song was absent – she was deadly still and silent.

"_...Time and time again I went away, But then would come the time when I would need you..."_

The defeated, heart-breaking resignation filled the room with raw emotion that seemed to tear through Kate. The self disparaging recrimination echoed Kate's darkest thoughts.

"_...I know it's wrong, it must be wrong, But right or wrong I can't get along...without you. I'm a fool to want you..."_

Kate looked up into Leon's knowing eyes. They were heavy with the knowledge of Kate, of everything she was, all her dark secrets and desires. The last chords mournfully filled the room before being broke by harsh silence that shattered under Kate's sobbing.

XxXx

Kate couldn't go home to the boarding house. She was far too raw, after her outburst Leon had scooped her up like a child and she had fallen into his hug, clinging to him weakly. He knew, someone else knew and the dread didn't kill Kate like she expected. Leon just gave her the same soft smile he had always given her. She hadn't changed in his eyes, even though she had changed in her own.

She had put Betty through this.

When she found out about Betty, she hadn't been accepting like Leon. Realising how much acceptance was needed, how validating it was, she wondered how Betty could ever forgive her. But Betty had, Betty had come for her when she had no reason to. Betty had worked hard to resume their friendship and Kate had again messed everything up.

"You sure you want to stay?" Leon asked her again.

"I'm not in the way, am I?" Kate asked, not feeling up to facing Betty just yet.

"The band and I love having you, Church Mouse," Leon smiled. "This place is getting a bit crowded. So you come up near the stage when you want to get some room, you hear me?"

"I hear you." Kate waved off his concern but they both knew how deeply touched she was by it.

The Tangiers was starting to fill up with its usual night crowd but Kate was watching with new eyes. She watched the women, looking for signs, shared traits with Betty (and now herself) that would give them away. Some were obvious, in their mannish dress, but others Kate could only guess at. Their eyes lingered too long on woman (like Kate's), they walked with brisker twist of their hips, they ordered harsh drinks. They lived as openly as they were able.

The dance floor was packed and spilling out into the rest of the bar until it was virtually indistinguishable. So many people heated up the room and boxed Kate in, but she couldn't bring herself to leave. Not now when she was starting to belong. Someone knocked into her table and she got up. It was silly, her holding it hostage when there were groups of friends that needed it more. She made her way to the stage where Leon was crooning _I'm your man._

Kate froze as she saw Betty on the other side of the room. Gladys was talking animatedly with her hands. She almost hit a poor man standing beside talking to his girl. Betty was rolling her eyes and nervously guarding her ribs. She really shouldn't be in a room this packed. Kate started to go to her, but stopped as she realised she would have to actually face Betty.

Leon finished his song and walked to the edge of the stage, crouching down to talk to her. He was sweating from his performance and looking absolutely exhilarated. Kate wanted that. She wanted to stop feeling bad about everything, she wanted the confidence and high that she got from performing.

She didn't even need to ask before Leon was pulling her on stage. "We've practiced this one before, Church Mouse, I know you can keep up. All right boys, hit it! '_She gets too hungry for dinner at eight..._'"

Kate laughed exuberantly as Leon twirled her. She lightly pushed Leon and he fake stumbled away as she grabbed the mic. _"'I don't like crap games with Barons and Earls...'" _She just wanted to contain the joy of performing. Bottle it up and keep it inside her so it blocked out all other bad things. She wanted Betty to look at her and see her shining, fun, and happy. She wanted her to be happy too.

"'_And that is why the lady is a tramp!'"_ They sung the finally together to the roaring of the crowds applause. The band was exhausted and Leon was mopping his forehead but Kate just felt energised, she felt happy. She looked for Betty and her happiness crashed into a brick wall at Betty's stricken look.

All at once the crowd's thunderous approval dulled and faded completely. The spotlights on the stage grew into bright glares that encapsulate Betty and Kate, like they were the whole world. Kate's happiness was a distant memory faced with Betty's look. Of course, Kate realised now, of course seeing her cavorting merrily on stage the day after she had stolen a kiss and run away, wouldn't make Betty happy. It wouldn't make her any less hurt and confused seeing Kate having a good time when she had probably spent the day worrying where she'd gone.

Betty looked abandoned.

"'_I'm a fool to want you...'" _she sang softly, after a moment the band picked up the rhythm at Leon's urging. Her voice grew stronger as she sang out to Betty. She'd heard the song only once but every lyric, every emotion, was burned into her.

Usually, Betty would lock eyes with Kate when Kate sung (to her, Kate always seemed to be singing to her). Instead, she looked down. Kate's voice washed over her, her song wrapped around her, the outpouring of her raw emotions filled the otherwise deadly quiet of the room. Was she being too open? Too honest? At last, when she had finally wanted to say everything, was she doing it wrong?

She was a fool. This was wrong. But it was also the only right thing that Kate could feel down to her very core.

"'_I can't get along without you,'"_ Kate finished to a stunned silence and the last haunting notes of the band. Betty turned and pushed her way out of the club, Gladys followed her after her, Kate wanted to jump down and rush out but she couldn't move. "'...without you...'"

The crowd start to clap, first a scattering of slow applause before everyone joined in. Kate didn't want to keep that praise, she was barely aware of it, it flew over her head without touching her. The only thing that affected her was Leon's strong hand on her shoulder. "Come along now, Church Mouse."

She waited numbly for Leon to finish up for the night. He collected her from the chair in the staff room where he had placed her after her song. "I'm going to walk you home," he told her. He wasn't going to let her argue.

"Okay," she said, following him docilely out of the club.

"Hey." Kate snapped out of her stupor at Betty's voice. She had been waiting around the corner from the club. There was a ring of cigarette butts at her feet and her hands were shoved deeply into the pockets of her trousers. She seemed to hunch defensively in on herself, ducking her head as she watched Leon and Kate guardedly.

"Betty," Kate breathed, coming out from behind Leon.

"Can we talk?" Betty asked, gruffly eyeing Leon.

"I'll head home now," Leon said, but it sounded like a question. Kate smiled at him and he offered her a brief shoulder squeeze. A car horn honked, making them turn towards Gladys who was hanging out the driver side window.

"I'll take you home, Leon," Gladys offered cheerfully. She noted their surprised looks and rolled her eyes. "Honestly Betty, did you actually think I would go home and leave you to skulk alone on the dark street corner?"

"I told you to beat it," Betty sighed, but her tone held a resigned agitation. It was Gladys after all.

"You said that it was dangerous and I concurred, which is why I couldn't leave you alone." Gladys' own voice held that smug satisfaction she had when she thought she was being smart. "Now, Mr Leon, may I offer you a ride home?"

"A coloured man getting out of a rich white woman's car, in my neighbourhood?" Leon shook his head as he backed away holding up his hands. "Thank you kindly, miss, but I'd rather not start trouble. Good night to you all."

"If you're sure..." Gladys frowned at the rejection but didn't push. She eyed Betty and Kate as Leon left. "Now, as my two best friends, I do hope that you solve this rotten thing between you. If this exploit has taught me anything, it's that I like my drama confined to the silver screen. I hope that you'll have this all worked out by tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, Gladys. You always seem to be caught in the middle of things, don't you?" Kate said apologetically.

"Only because she sticks her big nose in there," Betty grumbled.

Gladys smirked at them both, immune to Betty's remarks after all this time. "Playing princess in the middle isn't so bad. Besides, I doubt you would solve anything without me. Now, I'm going to leave you two to it, and I hope that by tomorrow my intervention will no longer be needed." Gladys waved at them and honked her horn as she drove off into the night.

"I swear, if Chamberlain had just used her to negotiate the Munich agreement, this whole war would never have happened," Betty growled, kicking a rock petulantly.

Kate clasped her hands together. She wasn't sure what to do, now that they were finally alone together. "I'm sorry about the song, I was sad and-"

"-You have a strange way of being sad," Betty said gruffly, she jerked her head and they started walking home. "First of all, you do what you did and then run away, then you're up on stage … Kate, what's going on?"

"I'm sorry I kissed you," Kate whispered. "I shouldn't have done that to you while you were sleeping … I'm sorry."

"Why did you do it at all!?" Betty snapped. Kate felt the sharp snap of her frustration and anger. She stopped walking and quickly looked around the street. There was only the faint rustling of trash and no one in sight.

"Because I couldn't not do it anymore!" Kate snapped back. "I told you! I don't want to be this way! I don't want to love you like I do!" She wanted to shove Betty, push her away physically like she couldn't do emotionally. But Betty was hurt and Kate couldn't add to it.

"You love me?" Betty echoed seeming both stunned and sceptical. "Kate, I've been through hell the last few months and you've been a pretty big part in that."

"What was I supposed to do?" Kate demanded "I was scared, loving you also means turning my whole world upside down. Yes, I stayed away, I couldn't reconcile your feelings with my teachings because I couldn't reconcile what I felt and I took it out on you, because you made me love you." Betty looked ready to argue but Kate didn't want to shut up, now that she was finally talking. At every word the ball of dread that had been with her almost constantly unravelled in thick nauseous strands that made her entire body shake with something like relief. "You made me love you, Betty McRae. You don't get to shirk that responsibility! You were strong, and brilliant. You took care of me and protected me. You made me feel like I was wanted, that I belonged. As time went on, you made me feel like, like I belonged to you … with you."

She touched her face briefly hiding behind her hand before letting it drop and looking at Betty square. She had done enough hiding. "So no, no I wasn't happy to find out that I needed you. How can I be, Betty? What sort of life is open to the likes of us?"

Betty looked deflated. She ran her hand through her hair disrupting her curls before she shrugged. "What do you want me to say, Kate? I can't promise you a happy ending or that everything will be all right. Gladys and her damn blindness, she doesn't realise what it's like for us. I can't promise you kids, or a wedding, or anything you dreamed of as a little girl. The only thing I can promise is that I'll be there. The only thing I can promise is me." Betty looked away, her good hand came up to cradle the one in the cast making her seem small as she stood in the haze of the lamp light. "And I don't think that's enough for you..."

Kate had to go to her. Betty seemed so defeated, standing there doubting her worth, that even if Kate had a mind for evil, it still couldn't have refused Betty. The knot in her stomach finally unravelled completely. In this moment, Kate finally felt free. "I want to be brave like you, Betty. You have to be patient and teach me, but I think that together, we might not need the traditional happy ever after. If you can forgive the way I've acted?"

Betty looked at Kate for a long time. Kate bit her lip but refused to run away. "What happened between us ... that hurt, Kate." Betty took a deep shuddering breath. She obviously hated admitting something as vulnerable as her feelings. Kate cringed inwardly. She had done that, not all of it but most of the recent damage. She had made Betty hesitant about trusting Kate with her feelings. "Anyone else and I'd tell that they were better off without, but I don't think I would be better off without you..."

Kate smiled slowly. "Does that mean I get to kiss you, Betty?"

"What? Here?!" Betty looked around, alarmed.

Kate continued to smile and daringly stepped closer. The knot was back in her stomach, but this time it was filled with strands of excitement and anticipation. "Anywhere you want, Betty."

XxXx

They didn't kiss in the street. In fact they didn't kiss at all that night. They walked home together and stood awkwardly in front of their doors, darting quick looks at each other for the longest time. To break the tension Kate stuck out her hand for Betty to shake. Betty laughed at her and went into her room, leaving Kate feeling like a buffoon. A happy buffoon.

Not much changed. Kate still followed Betty around like a puppy at work, at least until her ribs healed. They still had lunch with their friends and Gladys was still irritatingly smug with her knowing looks. Not much changed at all except for the night Kate was helping Betty to change her bandages and couldn't stop _looking_.

"Kate." Betty's tone was snappish as Kate knelt on the floor before the bed, dirty bandage in one hand. "Kate!"

"Huh?" Kate's head snapped up. Betty was sitting topless in her wide legged bottle green trousers, her hair was pinned up and she was glaring fiercely down at Kate, trying to hide the embarrassed flush on her cheeks.

"Ain't you supposed to be doing something other than getting an eyeful?" Betty held out the fresh bandage pointedly.

"I'm sorry!" Kate flushed darkly. She really hated her hair colour and pale skin, it always made her blushes noticeable. She took the bandage and went to work but her hands slowed as they touched Betty's skin. Betty breathed in sharply as Kate's fingers, a good deal braver than the rest of Kate, stroked down her bruised torso. "Did that hurt?" Kate asked concerned. She was surprised she could speak at all, her mouth was so dry.

"Hurting ain't the problem," Betty said, but she was still so tense. She was wearing a brassiere, the half underwear that Kate had only really seen in the magazines. It covered her breasts but the bruises on Betty's ribs seemed to spill from underneath it like a discoloured waterfall. Kate's right hand ran up the tender path of Betty's uneven ribs and still sore flesh. Huh, there was underwire in the lace of the brassiere.

"Don't that feel tough on your ribs?" Kate's tongue fumbled slightly as she traced the underwire feeling the bottom curve of Betty's breast. She could feel Betty's heat through the fabric.

"It's a bugger to put on. It hooks in the back. I've had to hook it up first and then slid it over like a top." Betty swallowed thickly as all her attention was drawn to Kate's wandering finger. The bandage in Kate's other hand went lax before falling away as Kate forgot about it completely. The wire pressed up between Betty's breasts where it met the wire from the other side. Kate rested her finger there, in the centre of Betty's chest, she was half tempted to slid it to the side and trace the lace at the top of the cup.

"Do you sleep in it?" Kate never slept in her underwear. She still had the petticoats and full garments but she really liked this new type. She liked to see Betty's stomach. Kate suddenly hated the high hem of her trousers that hid her hips and just below her belly button.

Betty shook her head.

"You're going to bed now, you should...you should..." Kate breathed, unable to finish her sentence as she stared intently at Betty's chest. There was an undeniable heat in Kate that churned at the idea.

"Kate," Betty said, her voice unsure and maybe even a little nervous. Kate looked up and Betty gasped. Kate worried for a second what Betty saw in her eyes because they felt strange, both heavy and hard to keep open, and yet so sharp as they took in every detail of Betty until it made Kate's head feel stuffed with cotton wool.

Betty didn't look away even as her cheeks heated up and she, with deliberate, agonising slowness, pushed one strap off her shoulder and then the other. She turned away from Kate showing off her profile and looked back at her. Kate didn't think Betty meant to be so alluring but she had trouble remembering to breathe all the same. "Can you help me take it off at the back?"

Kate eagerly got up to sit behind Betty on the bed twisting so she could trace the bra with her hands. There were still some horrible bruises that wrapped around Betty's lower back like a stain that spread from her front. But mostly, Betty's back was smooth unbroken flesh decorated with the fabric of the brassiere. Kate's hands met in the middle and paused.

"There's little hooks on the right side, you have to pull them left to unsnap them," Betty instructed. She was trying to seem like she was unaffected, but her voice still quivered and Kate could feel her pulse through the heated racing off her skin.

Kate's fingers fumbled, feeling thick and clumsy. She lowered her face to get a better look. Much like she would worry a knot between her teeth, she pulled the edge of the fabric, her nose brushing against the soft skin of Betty's back. With the help of her hands, the garment went slack like a tame beast fluttering forward. It was only kept in place by Betty's good hand pressed tight to her chest.

And then there was nothing but the potential of Betty's bare breasts in front of her and the unbroken and mostly unblemished skin of Betty's back. Kate longed to trace the faint outline the brassiere made against Betty's skin. Had Michael came down with his fiery sword he would still have been unable to stop her leaning forward to press her lips against the crook of Betty's shoulder.

She felt braver not having to face Betty. When she didn't have to look her in the eye, Kate could let her hands run freely which they did. Her mouth glued itself to Betty's skin and she was suddenly awash with understanding of that woman, that animal, who had grotesquely marked Betty weeks ago.

Kate found she was almost no better, feeling Betty's shuddering breathing underneath her lips, the quickness of her heart beat through the heat, the unbearable heat of her skin, Kate felt herself transform into a beast as well. She wanted to bite and mark Betty, put her own claim on her to erase all others. But she couldn't do that, not without Betty's permission and so far Betty hadn't even acknowledged that night.

Instead Kate whimpered as she kissed Betty's shoulders and her neck. She pressed her forehead against Betty's flesh both nuzzling and nudging her to react. She wanted to slid her hands around the front, to pull down Betty's hand, it would be easy, she only had one good one. She wanted to cup her breasts, let them fill her wanting hands, anything that would end the tortuous heat that threatened to consume her.

Her father was right. This wasn't natural or normal, how could anyone else feel this burning inside them and not combust or go crazy. Had she found the source of madness? Was it Betty all along? She seemed like the temptress Eve and Kate just wanted to bite the apple.

Her teeth brushed against the tense muscle of Betty's shoulders but it was teasing, no, a tortuous caress. Please Betty, please, please, "Please..."

Betty turned and Kate saw that she would find no rescue from the flame because Betty burned the same way she did. Betty kissed her, finally. It was hungry and overwhelming, she had had much more experience at this that Kate obviously, but Kate kissed back as well as she could anxious not to be left behind.

Betty cupped her face and guided her head so that they didn't clash noses. She tilted her head in the exact way she wanted Kate in order to – something wet flicked at her lips. Kate let herself be guided down onto her back but she was too consumed to stay there. She lent up on her elbows and tangled her hand in Betty's hair knocking the curls from their clips. The rough plaster of Betty's broken arm rubbed against the cotton of her blouse. Kate could feel everything intensely. It was like Betty had shocked her nerves.

It was when she felt the deep depression of Betty's good hand near her elbow that she realised that Betty's hands where down. They were no longer holding the brassier and her chest was free. Kate's head spun as she gasped into the still going kiss. Her own chest swelled brushed against Betty's but she didn't feel skin, couldn't feel the needed sensations.

Kate's hand came around the front, it couldn't be stopped. The softness filled her hand with a surprising hardness in the middle that contrasted the euphoric feeling. Betty jerked in surprise and gasped breaking the kiss. Kate couldn't have that, she wanted more, she needed it. She pushed Betty onto her back determined to take, to have more.

And then Betty yelped. She cursed like a sailor and curled up defensively. Kate shot of the bed her nerves and reflexes propelling her faster than thought. "Are you okay? What's wrong? Do you need a doctor? Did I do something wrong? Should I get a policeman?!" She was already halfway out the door to get someone, anyone, everyone. She really wasn't thinking straight.

"My ribs," Betty gasped, causing Kate to trip as she turned about trying to get back to the bed.

"Your ribs?!" Kate's head popped up over the edge of the bed before she sprung up like a jack-in-the-box. "What's wrong with them?"

"Calm down!" Betty snapped, grabbing her and forcing her still as she regained her breath. Betty tentatively uncurled from her foetal position, grimacing at the leftover twinges of pain. "You threw me on my very bruised ribs."

"Oh, Betty." Kate's voice was both mortified and deeply apologetic. "I am so sorry." She snatched up the clean bandage that had been kicked to the floor. "I'm really, really sorry. I'll call Gladys and get her to come over and finish. I really didn't mean to hurt you." She slinked down like a kicked puppy. Her one chance was completely ruined.

"Gladys is the last person in the world I would want to see me like this," Betty scowled as she sat up. She didn't let go of Kate's hand.

"I'll get Vera then, or one of the girls on the floor," Kate sniffed. She was not going to cry and make Betty feel guilty. Kate felt horrible enough for the both of them.

Betty grabbed her chin and guided her head back to look at her. Kate looked up at her miserably. Betty laughed. "Kate, I don't want Vera or any of the other girls to see me either. The only one I want is you."

"Oh." Kate flushed. She was sure Betty could feel the heat off her face.

"So, how about you bandage me up and we go back to doing what we were doing ... only a little more gentle?" Betty suggested.

"I'd like that," Kate said shyly.

And so they did. Betty couldn't promise her happy ever after, or a kids and romantic walks hand in hand, but Kate couldn't promise Betty that she would ever stop being afraid, or wrestling with her teachings or even wishing she was normal. All's they really could promise was to be there, together, end maybe that would be enough.


End file.
